About

ICOSA Collective is proud to present Enclaves. Matt Rebholz and Jenn Wilson Shepherd explore the relationship of the world beyond humanism where people are not the central focal point. This omission of humanity in favor of vast depopulated landscapes and wildlife beyond classification examines our current crisis in the age of the Anthropocene and the artists’ tensions between the absence of humanity and the necessity of a human hand to generate the source material. Both artists present worlds where humanity has been omitted in favor of primordial or post-apocalyptic landscapes. Rebholz’s compositions are drawn from film stills borrowed from movies that he has a deep, personal relationship with while Wilson Shepherd’s work is informed by images captured by wildlife camera traps and our cultural history and documentation of extinct animals.

The spaces depicted in Matt Rebholz’s landscape paintings are informed by film stills from movies that he enjoys intimate and deeply personal relationships with. Drawn primarily from Western and other genre films, these environments have been denuded of all evidence of life, leaving rocky and alien landscapes rendered in an electrified, psychedelic palette.

Rebholz engages with film as a coping strategy to manage a lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder. The movies referenced in the paintings represent a comfortable space of retreat and an emotional scaffold in times of crisis. Like bipolar disorder itself, the landscapes that have been built around these films are simultaneously lonesome and populous, quiet and loud, barren and fertile.

The images in this exhibition are translated from film stills borrowed from A Fistful of Dollars (1964, Dir. Sergio Leone, DoP. Massimo Dallamano and Federico G. Larraya), The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966, Dir. Sergio Leone, DoP. Tonino Delli Colli), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984, Dir. Leonard Nimoy, DoP. Charles Correll), The Last of the Mohicans, (1992, Dir. Michael Mann, DoP. Dante Spinotti), Dead Man (1995, Dir. Jim Jarmusch, DoP. Robby Müller), and Ravenous (1999, Dir. Antonia Bird, DoP. Anthony B. Richmond).

Matt Rebholz and Jenn Wilson Shepherd
Exhibition Dates: September 27 – October 26, 2024
Artist Reception: Friday, September 27, 7-10 pm, 2024
East Austin Arts District Third Thursday: Thursday, October 17, 7-9pm, 2024
Gallery Hours: Fridays & Saturdays 12-6 pm or by appointment