On view in "The World is Round"
MetroTech Center, Brooklyn
October 26, 2006 – September 9, 2007

The World is Round features new commissions and recent works by Jacob Dyrenforth, Diana Guerrero-Maciá, Chris Hanson & Hendrika Sonnenberg, Matt Johnson, and Ryan McGinness, all of whom have created works that explore collective consciousness and expression. Although the artists work in a variety of media and thematic areas, their practices are all linked by an interest in shared languages and systems, whether personal or political, formal or informal.

Los Angeles-based artist Matt Johnson's playful sculptures depict everyday objects in unexpected, appealing ways, altering materiality and function in order to challenge typical meanings and assumptions. Johnson's meticulously crafted works strike an unsettling balance between reality and artifice, calling into question how and where the artist has intervened with the chosen objects. He often incorporates elements of wordplay, and art historical or cultural references, resulting in wry yet fanciful conceptual witticisms.

Johnson's low-key intervention in MetroTech's manicured landscape, 4eva, is a large, three-ton boulder of ancient pre-Cambrian granite, flecked with what appear to be quartz veins. Upon closer inspection the viewer can see that the veins spell out the number '4' and the letters 'EVA,' which together form shorthand for the word 'FOREVER.' Johnson's prehistoric object seems to convey its timeless nature in an unusually direct and very contemporary manner, using the abbreviated language of text messaging to convey a colloquial phrase one might expect to find in a high-school yearbook. Expanding upon the age-old graffitist's impulse—from cave drawing to tree carving to senior-class spray painting—4eva is an instance of personal mark-making cleverly masquerading as a natural occurrence.

Artist Bio
Johnson was born in New York in 1978. He received a BA from the Maryland Institute College of Fine Arts (2002) and an MFA from University of California, Los Angeles (2003). His work has been presented in solo shows at Blum & Poe, Los Angeles (2006), Taxter & Spengemann, New York (2005, 2004), and elsewhere.

Sponsorship
The World Is Round at MetroTech Center is part of an ongoing program organized by the Public Art Fund and sponsored by MetroTech Commons Associates, an organization that consists of MetroTech companies Bear Stearns & Company, Forest City Ratner Companies, JPMorganChase, KeySpan, and Polytechnic University.

Special thanks to Forest City Ratner Companies and First New York Partners.

Location
MetroTech Center is located in Downtown Brooklyn between Jay Street and Flatbush Avenue at Myrtle Avenue. Viewing hours are dawn to dusk daily for outdoor works, Monday through Friday 8am to 6pm for Jacob Dyrenforth's installation in the lobby of One MetroTech. Subway: A, C, F to Jay Street/Borough Hall, exit at Myrtle Promenade; R to Lawrence Street; Q to Dekalb Avenue.