About the Gallery Artists Represented Exhibition Archives Gallery Home Marsha Mateyka Gallery Exhibition Archive Buzz Spector:  About the Author, new collages                                    February 21 - March 29, 2014                                  reception for the artist: Saturday, March 22, 4-6 PM Press Release Writers as de Stijl 3, 2014 collaged dust jacket elements on handmade paper 8.5 x 8.5 inches Writers as others 2, 2014 collaged dust jacket elements on handmade paper 8.5 x 8.5 inches Writers as others 3, 2014 collaged dust jacket elements on handmade paper 8.5 x 8.5 inches Open Letter, 2013 collaged dust jacket elements on handmade paper 8.5 x 8.5 inches Open Book, 2013 collaged dust jacket elements on handmade paper 8.5 x 8.5 inches About the Author 1, 2013 collaged dust jacket elements on handmade paper 8.5 x 8.5 inches About the Author 2, 2013 collaged dust jacket elements on handmade paper 8.5 x 8.5 inches Writers as de Stijl 2, 2013 collaged dust jacket elements on handmade paper 8.5 x 8.5 inches Collage poem: in the world every day, 2014 collaged dust jacket elements on handmade paper 8.5 x 8.5 inches Collage poem: art of life, 2013 collaged dust jacket elements on handmade paper 8.5 x 8.5 inches                                                        Available works by Buzz Spector Press Release Marsha Mateyka Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent collages by nationally known, conceptual artist, Buzz Spector.  The exhibition will be on view through March 29.  The artist’s reception will take place on Saturday, March 22, from 4:00-6:00pm.  This is the artist’s fifth solo exhibition, at the gallery. Buzz Spector loves books.  He is a visual artist who for more than three decades has used various aspects of the book as both subject and primary medium.  He has used books to create sculptural objects: both unique individual works and large scale temporary installations.  Among his most celebrated works are “Freeze Freud” and “Unpacking My Library”.  The former consists of a large, industrial freezer containing two blocks of ice in which the artist, by carving pockets, has encased Freud’s entire body of work-24 volumes.  The latter is a temporary installation that displays his personal library of approximately 4000 volumes on a single long shelf surrounding the room.  The books are standing upright in descending order by height, with the spines visible so that viewers may browse titles and authors.  It serves as a self-portrait of the artist as well as a reminder of how books are collections of ideas that connect us. Among Buzz Spector’s most intimate and small scale works are his dust jacket collages.  New examples of these works form the current exhibition, titled “About the Author”, at Marsha Mateyka Gallery.  By first clipping text and publicity photos from dust jacket covers, he then creates, with wit and precision, abstract compositions.  The collage process of cutting up and reconstructing allows reconsideration of images and phrases.  “About the Author’ is the phrase taken from multiple covers which serves to introduce a bio or portrait.  So what is the point of the author’s portrait on the jacket cover?  Does it factor into a decision to buy the book or to read it?  Does it offer clues as to the book’s content? Buzz Spector is also a curator and teacher.  One of the earliest exhibitions he curated was “Objects and Logotypes, Relationships Between Minimal Art and Corporate Design”, for the Renaissance Society in Chicago in 1980.  This exhibition will be revisited in an article in the upcoming April 2014 issue of Art in America. The artist is currently Dean of the College and Graduate School of Art at Washington University, St. Louis, MO. Buzz Spector’s works are in numerous museum collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum, the Tate Modern, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, British Museum Library, Museum of Modern Art. Back to Top