Mild & Reflection: A Dialog with Matt Scobey

I first grew to become fascinated by Matt Scobey’s work in spring 2025 at Maintenant, an exhibition house in Marfa. In the night of the document launch for native band Baby Steps, Scobey walked me down the trail of Maintenant’s outside sculpture backyard to point out his work within the context of the setting solar. As the solar descended, its westward gentle filtered via clear acrylic sandwiched between rectangular slabs of concrete. 

Scobey then confirmed me his new work of copper-plated volcanic rocks. We mentioned the alchemical properties of copper and the play of sunshine within the positions of his artworks. Since that night, I’ve needed to have an prolonged dialog with Scobey about his work, supplies, and thought processes. This interview, which has been edited for brevity and readability, is that dialog.

Amanda Holstien (AH): Where we dwell has an impact on how we see the world. Location can affect notion, and notion molds what the artist creates. Do you’ve gotten any ideas on how the panorama and vitality of Marfa affect your work?

Matt Scobey (MS): Sure, positive. Everything impacts us on a regular basis, so geography is certainly going to play a job on concepts I may need, tasks I’d endeavor, or supplies I’d use. 

I’ve been out right here for nearly eight or 9 years, and it’s modified the best way I method making artwork or eager about artwork. Marfa may be sort of quiet, and it’s just a little simpler for me to give attention to my inside dialogue and the concepts that I wish to develop or tasks I wish to discover. 

AH: Is there a selected native place or plant with which you might be in present dialogue? 

MS: Lately, I’ve been noticing Apache plume and the way they catch daylight at totally different instances of day or climate circumstances. I’ve been folding strolling into studio observe, so all the things I see and take into consideration throughout these walks in some way comes into the work.

AH: You talked about that location influences the supplies with which you’re employed. Tell me extra about the way you arrived at your present supplies and kinds.

MS: When I go searching my neighborhood, we don’t have huge field shops; we don’t have lumber yards; we don’t have stone yards; we don’t have steel retailers. Well, there’s one in Alpine. 

Once I’ve the thought and have determined to maneuver ahead, then I’ll determine, “Oh, do I need to order material in? Is there a local material that I can sub for this material that I had in my imagination initially? What makes the most sense for the idea or the project? Is there a texture? Is there a surface tension I want to have?” That’s totally different with every mission and relies on whether or not I’m doing one thing that’s meant to have some performance or one thing that’s meant to be a part of a efficiency. Those constraints may assist me determine which option to make or which course to go.

Beyond Marfa particularly, I made a decision early in my profession that I needed to purchase supplies from {hardware} shops, Dollar General, or grocery shops — that was a really acutely aware non-fine artwork resolution. I don’t wish to make the sculpture David out of an enormous chunk of marble that I’ll by no means be capable of purchase. That’s artwork from one other time and place.

I wish to make artwork to know myself, my life, my place, and my time. I additionally wish to make issues that folks have methods of seeing their life and place and time via. I wish to make issues to precise concepts and feelings, and to, hopefully, put these items in an area the place different folks that I do know and don’t know can work together with them. Then, we are able to have some sort of dialogue or connectivity, whether or not or not we ever personally meet.

As far as different supplies, I received into utilizing wooden sort of by accident in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. I labored with Method Building Company on a Judd Foundation constructing on the Perry Ranch for just a little bit, and I wanted to software as much as work on a contracting crew. It ended up altering the trajectory of my artwork observe. I needed to know the instruments, work with them and put money into them extra, moderately than have the concepts and produce other craftspeople fabricate them. 

AH: One of the issues that I like about artwork is that I can really feel the artist’s vitality of their art work, so after I’m deciphering a bit of artwork, I’m not solely trying on the kind and composition, I’m feeling the comb strokes.

MS: Yeah, or just like the gesture of it, what they’ve completed to vary the fabric.

AH: Yes, and that comes via in your work with wooden. Talk to me about your work with copper.

MS: I like that materials. I’ve all the time been drawn to it. I believe this happened previous to transferring to Marfa, this curiosity in {hardware} shops and getting supplies that individuals are conscious of of their lives, like how folks may know copper in its affiliation with electrical energy.

Because copper is a conductor for electrical energy, it has a variety of wild, cool beliefs round it, like in alchemy. There’s a variety of totally different cultural beliefs round love, therapeutic, and vitality related to copper. I like the softness of the factor. If I mirror polish some copper, it’s smooth and reflective. 

I’m usually eager about how gentle transmits via acrylic materials, however I additionally am eager about how gentle is both absorbed by or mirrored off a floor. I like the patina aspect of copper, the thought of entropy and the way it reacts to its atmosphere always. 

AH: In your work, the transmission of sunshine comes via very clearly as an curiosity of yours. Can you say extra concerning the core inquiries you search to discover or specific via your work?

MS: Many of my works are fascinated by how pure gentle transmits, is absorbed by, and displays off materials surfaces. The viewer’s expertise of my work is predicated on their relation to the piece and its relation to pure or synthetic gentle throughout that second. The works transmit and amplify pure gentle — no matter facet of the work is casting a shadow will emit a glow or seem illuminated.

AH: When you’re wrestling with a query or a philosophy and also you’re working in your artwork, is there a acutely aware story that you simply’re making an attempt to inform?

MS: I believe there may be not less than two narratives in any art work, and the artist’s expertise may be separated from the viewer’s expertise. 

I’m not essentially an artist who desires to convey a selected vocabulary-based message. I don’t need you to consciously perceive precisely what’s happening in my head. But, such as you’re mentioning, I’m placing vitality into these supplies. I’m mixing them up and reworking them. That message is someplace in these supplies. 

Hopefully, if it’s an excellent work, it’ll converse for itself, whether or not I can enunciate it or not, to whoever else could also be primed to see or hear that message.

In the artwork world, there’s this concept that the general public finishes the art work, and when somebody involves see it, that’s the way it’s resolved or completed. I don’t essentially agree with that. I don’t assume issues are ever resolved till I cease respiration and evolve into a unique vitality sphere or dimension or one thing. But there’s nonetheless some curiosity there that some resonance or dissonance may be created between the viewers and the artist’s understanding of the work.

AH: Maybe there’s some extent of stability inside that — the shape being the management mechanism and an open interpretation being the discharge. So you’ve gotten a tightness and a looseness occurring without delay, and there’s a balancing that occurs between these two factors. 

MS: Also, it’s necessary to not make it too black and white. We’re in an enormous grey space, and we’re all processing, firing, receiving, and transmitting in numerous moments, proper? 

I’m fascinated by works that may be understood in a cultural approach. Like a portray, by Diego Rivera, you possibly can instantly perceive the context or the assertion expressed, whether or not you’re from that era or not. That’s fascinating to me, nevertheless it’s not essentially what I’m making an attempt to do, not at this second. I don’t wish to restrict myself. Art is a spectrum. Love is a spectrum. I wish to really feel limitless in how I can specific ideas and love via materials. 

AH: You talked about Diego Rivera, are there different artists, writers, or musicians with which you might be in dialog proper now?

MS: I’m listening to a variety of corridos proper now, like narco corridos. The content material of those lyrics is horrible, and I don’t agree with them in any respect. These narcos will fee a music about their antics as drug lords. I’m obsessive about the thought of constructing a corrido about residing in Marfa and taking part within the artwork world right here, like, flipping that context from drug traffickers to the artwork traffickers. 

I like the thought of taking the historic type of a corrido however switching the cultural values. There might be a model that appeals to the values of a librarian or somebody who works at a grocery retailer. I believe it will be fascinating to take scenes from their every day existence and to place them in a spot of adventures. The swap in cultural worth could be to glorify the common or laborious working folks, and to not glorify straightforward cash or excessive wealth. A corrido concerning the artwork supplier/drug supplier would make me query artwork world ethics in a approach I’d query narco world ethics. 

My good friend Sam Salazaar truly launched me to música Mexicana. I’m additionally in dialog with different artists domestically, like Mo Eldridge, Rob Mazurek, Nick Terry. I meet with these folks, individually, commonly, and we’re all the time furthering a dialog about every of our practices. I’ve been doing a variety of work with Chris Ramming and Alexis [Smith] over at Club Nowhere within the final 12 months, and my pals Jeff and Sabrina Matthias at Maintenent. Also the Rule Gallery group, I’ve completed a variety of work with them over the past 12 months. 

Then there’s artists that I don’t personally know in any respect, however I really feel a kinship towards. The one or two which were actually current in my observe over the past two years could be David Hammons and Arthur Jafa. Also Mexican artist Pedro Reyes makes actually unbelievable work.

AH: You’ve completed a variety of work with native galleries in Marfa. Where’s essentially the most fascinating place you’ve had a present, even past Marfa?

MH: I don’t know what’s essentially the most fascinating place, however I was concerned with this DIY house in Denver known as Rhinoceropolis. That was actually enjoyable and formative for me, and it was only a warehouse house. I had so many pals who lived there over time, and we might do these huge installations. It taught me about tips on how to dwell a creative life, moderately than dwell a life monetizing your artwork observe.

When I lived in Denver, within the early social media days, I used to do a social media artwork scavenger hunt. I’d put an art work in an alley or library and take an image of it; caption it with the placement, supplies, title and measurement; and other people might go discover it. People received an enormous kick out of that. 

I wish to see artists doing issues in non-traditional areas extra and doing issues tailor-made towards “non-traditional” artwork audiences. I don’t wish to make issues only for curators and different artists, artwork lecturers, and teachers. I wish to discover methods of connecting with individuals who would by no means stroll right into a museum. I wish to discover methods of reaching a wider viewers and nonetheless, in some way, possibly pay a invoice or two or eat meals on the common. 

AH: This truly brings me to the following query I needed to ask you. Alongside being a longtime artist, you additionally clear an Airbnb. How do you navigate this obvious dichotomy of worlds?

MS: For six years, possibly seven, I’ve been cleansing two Airbnbs right here in Marfa, as a approach of getting a free house and studio house. So there’s one half that’s very purposeful: it’s costly to dwell right here, and this matches my monetary scenario and life scenario. 

I do assume it’s meditative to do that work. It’s nameless work, and there’s one thing cool about having this regular labor that isn’t overwhelming however could be very repetitive. 

I imply if I received the lottery, I’d most likely cease doing that instantly. It’s not one thing I’m making an attempt to do perpetually, nevertheless it has been a option to enable me to work much less for different folks and dedicate much more time to my ideas round my artwork observe. As an artist, that’s very invaluable. 

Then there’s this factor… that is labor that’s not accredited or acknowledged in our city, and it’s some of the accessible forms of labor as a result of we’re sort of a vacationer city. We have a variety of turnover and a variety of companies that cater to tourism. You don’t usually see girls who do the cleansing at these artwork openings. They have households, you realize; they’re residing life. 

We have little or no cash for our faculties and our metropolis, and we’ve received lots of people who’re recreationally rich coming out and in of this place. I don’t wish to romanticize the labor, or make these cleaners to be saints, however I believe it’s a ripe matter that nobody’s talked about right here.

AH: It appears like you might be commonly considering and wrestling with these social questions throughout the context of place. We usually hear a dialogue concerning the position of an artist and their obligation to society, however I’m curious what you take into account to be not the accountability or obligation of an artist?

MS: This may make me sound like, I don’t know… I don’t assume the artist has any accountability to society. That’s a surefire approach so that you can have actually dangerous land artwork and encourage very monotone tradition.

I additionally don’t assume artwork has any inherent worth, which is controversial in some corners of the artwork world. I believe that artwork has solely ascribed worth. I don’t wish to dwell in a world with out artwork or non secular or private expression and creativity, however like these plastic cups, I can let you know the worth the Dollar General assigns to them is $1. They’re trash, and so they’re one thing that we’ve got to cope with. I wouldn’t wish to drink out of them. I wouldn’t need anybody in my household to drink out of those plastic cups or eat out of those plastic bowls. To me, there’s a damaging cultural worth to those issues which can be over produced. 

I’m making an attempt to tug from that stream of waste or shit manufacturing and making an attempt to, in some way, put some sort of curiosity or theoretical worth into that or re-contextualize them in a approach the place they’ll have a unique which means to me, or they’ll turn into related or expressive in a approach that’s not similar to a glut of client tradition that all of us need to cope with. 

I don’t imagine we must always have assumptions and expectations about artworks and artists or that artists have accountability to an viewers. We do have accountability to one another, our households, pals, and coworkers to point out up for one another nevertheless we are able to.

AH: Can you stroll via one current work from inspiration to completion?

MS: Recently, I made a set of bowling pins for Club Nowhere. It got here out of a boys’ night time over there. We mainly simply conversate and speak about concepts of what could be enjoyable. Chris Ramming stored telling me how each every now and then these traders will attain out to him and be like, “Hey man, do you want to come over and check out this new property I bought? Give me some insight to do X or Y business here. You’ve been in town for a while.” He advised me he’s been pitching this concept for years, “You should do a bowling alley for people,” asking considered one of these traders or builders to truly make a enterprise for Marfa. You know, Marfa households would go bowling. They’d drink beer, play video games, video video games, darts. 

AH: All day.

MS: None of those builders will ever take Chris up on this as a result of it’s an excessive amount of cash up entrance, or it doesn’t appear glamorous to them or no matter. After we talked about this for some time, as a substitute of getting pissed off, I mentioned, “Oh, I’ve got all these pieces of wood I was going to use for a project, they’re kind of the size of these bowling pins. I’m just going to make a version of them.”

We have been speaking about that home by Cactus [Liquors] and seen the hallway is sort of the size of a bowling lane. I requested, “Can we roll a bocce ball down this hallway and just bowl in this hallway, Chris?” And he mentioned, “Yeah, you make the pins. We’ll do it.” 

So over every week, I received busy making pins with acrylic in them; they have been simply wooden. Then we introduced them over and began bowling. I received an enormous kick out of it. We don’t do it on a regular basis, and it’s most likely not nice for the constructing, nevertheless it’s a cool factor that now we are able to do. 

Instead of ready for somebody to offer us permission or give us funding to do it, we might do some model of it, simply DIY. That’s very a lot in my wheelhouse. That’s very a lot the vitality I wish to deliver into 2026 and past. I don’t wish to really feel like, “Oh, we can’t do this because someone didn’t give us permission or because we don’t have enough dollars to do it.” 

Let’s work out how we are able to do it. Let’s maintain transferring ahead and maintain residing life and maintain doing issues for one another, even when it’s not the fanciest option to do it. Let’s not really feel dejected or down or caught. Let’s maintain working and residing with one another and making experiences for one another.