Artists: H - Z: Matt Haffner

This series of work looks at fictional post-apocalyptic urban landscapes with remembrances of street life though transparent figures that evoke feelings of nostalgia and loss. These individuals are at once ghosts and at the same time memories of what once inhabited these alleyways, subway stations and city streets. Derivative of film noir, comic books and contemporary popular media these ambiguous narratives are quiet and contemplative in their aesthetics, but are often aggressive and unsympathetic in their subject matter.

Using the medium of ink drawings on mylar and traditional photo c-prints is something I have used extensively in the past, though with this series, I was interested in the excavation of layers through the cutting out of key aesthetic and conceptual elements. This visual dichotomy reinforces the push and pull of the drawings and their relationship to the photographs of abandoned streets. This gives the pieces a collage like appearance that makes reference to French New Realist work and American Pop from which these draw inspiration.

The source imagery for these works is from the streets of Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta. These are the cities I have lived in and examined for years, looking at layers of culture, history of architecture phenomena, and the intersections of street life and how these dramatically shape how we move through the city and interact with its characters and its detritus.

Matt Haffner graduated from the University of Akron (BFA) and Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA (MFA). Recent exhibitions are: Rialto Center for the Arts, Georgia State University; Forward Arts Foundation - Swan Coach house, GA and in the collections of: KUNSTWERK Museum, Berlin (Germany); Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia; Alston and Bird LLP., Atlanta, GA; Charles McDougall, Director, Desperate Housewives; Anglo Irish Bank, Dublin / New York; Alabama Theatre, Birmingham, Al; Temple Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA; University of Akron, Akron Ohio as well as in various private collections.