Matt was elated when he was fired from a job last summer and ended up working at a day camp for kids. As warm-hearted and fun-loving as could be, Matt is a GIANT kid, in his wide-open spirit and endless ability to turn literally everything and anything into a creative experience and ultimately into a creation. Life is his stage and humor his vehicle, from dressing up like a tourist and walking through Soho as if he is one, to turning plastic toys into his signature necklaces. Everything is game for him to make art with, including tie-dying his tighty whities, doodling all over his card table, and tearing the garbage apart at his job at an old age home in order to find material for reappropriating his clothing and jewels. Matt’s attraction to “the ridiculous and obnoxious” is a refreshing antidote to the pretension and seriousness of fashion, and is in and of itself avante garde. Like a true artist, he doesn’t know where to stop when he starts working on something, and what comes out of it is absolutely brilliant, like his elaborately bedazzled, hand-painted and collaged baseball hats and sneakers, each one a masterpiece. But for me, Matt’s highest form of art and the reason for his ability to be so innovative is his boundless love and fascination with people and life and the absurdity of it all.

If you like Matt, you might also enjoy Zarzan, Ash Epps, Koos van den Akker, Ben Oprstu, or Athena Stuebe.