Jeff Matsuno

Warner Brothers

2011-09-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Warner Brothers 2011

Mixed Media

in 42 x 15 x 7

Night View

Warner Brothers

Detail Night View

Warner Brothers

Day View

Davis & Cline Gallery, April-May 2011

2011-04-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

Frolic Room, The Living Ghost

2010-12-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

Living Ghost / Frolic Room

in. 31 x 24 x 5.5

2010 Mixed Media

with electroluminescent wire

Daytime view

Evening view

Detail

Nightime view

Detail

Frolic Room is a small bar attached to the Pantages Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Customer reviews peg it as the classic "dive bar." It has survived pretty much intact from the 1930's. It did have it's moment of glory and glamour in the 1950's when the Academy Awards Ceremony was held at the Pantages.

When I was doing my visual research it was late afternoon and it was very dark inside the bar. I could make out the shadows of a couple people in the bar and I could sense they were looking at me looking in. I didn't go in.

Musso and Frank's - Another Hollywood Ghost

2010-12-20T19:49:00.000-08:00

Musso and Franks

in 26 x 38 x 5

2010 Mixed Media

Musso and Franks

Details

As part of my research for this project I took my family to eat at the real Musso and Frank's on Hollywood Boulevard. Before our visit I was looking at websites with references to Musso's and there was one about dining with Charlie Chaplin's ghost. My seven year old daughter is a big Charlie Chaplin fan (she's seen most of his movies) and also got very interested in the ghosts of Hollywood. When we got to Hollywood she became concerned, "Are there really ghosts here?" "No, " I told her, but as soon as we got on the boulevard we were greeted by a big placard reading, "Haunted Hollywood Tours."

Musso's is an enchanting place, a real trip back in time. After dinner I went to use the restroom and on my way there I thought I had celebrity sighting- an old actor with a familiar face whose name I couldn't recall, probably never even knew. I told my wife and daughter about it, but with my vague description they understtod nothing. As we walked back to our table we must have all stared at the poor guy with our jaws slightly slack.

When I got home I tried to figure who the actor was. I thought he was perhaps on the 1960's variety show, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In." So I googled that and sure enough I found the actor I thought I saw- Henry Gibson.

He had died in September 2009, a year earlier.

Back by the restrooms at Musso's there was a grainy old photograph of Musso's as it appeared in about the 1920's or 30's (judging form the cars parked in front). I took a photo of the old photo and that was my source for this painting. I wanted to do colors different from "John's Cafe" but the variations I chose never looked right and I decided to stick with t"John's" colors which just looked right.

Hollywood Ghost - John's Cafe'

2010-07-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

John's Cafe'

Details

John's Cafe'

in. 24 x 41 x 4

2010 Mixed Media

I've started a new series of works depicting buildings in Hollywood that either no longer exist or that have been extensively remodeled. The following, "John's Cafe" is the first and represents the first restaurant in Hollywood. According to Gregory Paul Williams, author of "The Story of Hollywood," John Carvellas started with a peanut and popcorn stand at Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga. That was a Red Car stop for folks going to work over the hill at the Universal Pictures Studios. Business was brisk enough that he decided to open a restaurant. It became one of the first celebrity hangouts, a favorite of Charlie Chaplin.

I used a photo from Gregory Paul Williams book that was dated 1917. I had to invent the colors and the objects in the windows.

Exhibition at Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica

2010-03-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

Fire Escape

2010-03-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

Fire Escape

in. 30 x 40 x 5

Mixed Media 2010

Detail

My most recent work completed is almost always my favorite. This view is also on the backside of Broadway. There are at least six stories of fire escapes on this particular building, each has been embellished by grafitti artists. The whole, to me, is visually rich.

Walled (Backside of Broadway)

2010-01-10T14:41:00.001-08:00

20" x 20" click on image for larger view

Dancing Girls (click on image for a larger view)

2009-12-23T09:52:00.000-08:00

This sign on Spring St. in Downtown Los Angeles caught my eye. Most of the old neons Downtown are non functioning. It's kind of sad, but adds that touch of poetry that I look for in my subject matter.

Backside of Broadway

2009-01-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

New Direction

2008-10-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

Pantages

Grafitti Wars

I recently decided to start a series of works depicting Los Angeles. The idea has crossed my mind many times but I never quite found a way "into" the subject matter, which happens to be my hometown. I took these photos a year ago and finally got around to making the work these past few months. The funny thing was I revisited Downtown L.A. this past weekend to search for more subjects and found that each of the three buildings I depicted have changed. The buiding in "Grafitti Wars" has been totally restored and the graffiti is long gone. The Pantages building was also without grafitti. The Broadway Arcade Building seems to be in the process of restoration and the written signage I depicted has been removed. This used to always happen to buildings I chose for subject matter in Venice, Italy as well. No sooner than I made a work than the buildings would be restored. I used to joke that I had to make my work before they restored everything. It's funny how my work becomes a kind of historical document- documenting an ephemeral patina, a moment in time when decay and, in some cases graffiti defines a monument and then is gone, while the monument remains.

Broadway Arcade Building

Old Favorites

2008-07-23T12:10:00.001-07:00

(click on images to enlarge)

I would imagine that every artist has a few paintings that he/she regrets selling. These are a few of mine.

Tintoretto (Scuola Grande di San Rocco), 2003, 27" x 17" x 2" *

Farmacia (Ospedale di San Zanipolo), 2002, 27" x 17" x 2" *

The subject of this portal is a door on the facade of the main hospital in Venice. The hospital fronts Campo San Giovanni e Paolo (Zanipolo is Venetian dialect). The doors have since been repainted. The lover's graffiti (TVTB, which is written on the door, meaning, "ti voglio tanto bene" or "I love you") is gone.

"Sotoportego del Banco Giro"

2008-04-05T18:13:00.001-07:00

I Margini Centrali (sotoportego del Banco Giro), 2002, 14" x 16" x 1" *

The "sotoportego" (covered colonade) in question is just behind the row of souvenir street vendors at the famous "Ponte Rialto." There are a whole row of these warehouses where the street vendors would store their carts at night. Kind of a decrepit place. This past year, 2008, We found the whole area had been restored and was now a row of beautiful, upscale trattorias and osteria (wine bars). Kind of nice. However, crusty old subjects of my interest are gone.

"Margini Centrali" means on the "margins of the center." The title was meant to describe how this "marginal" place, all run down, could coexist with the Ponte Rialto, one of the central points of Venice.

Exhibition at James Gray Gallery, 2008 Santa Monica, California

2008-04-05T16:58:00.003-07:00

"Grata"

2008-04-05T16:42:00.001-07:00

inches- 40 x 30 x 3, cm.- 102 x 76 x 8

"Tiranti"

2008-04-05T16:31:00.001-07:00

inches- 40 x 30 x 3, cm.- 102 x 76 x 8

detail

"Turchese"

2008-04-05T16:27:00.001-07:00

inches- 40 x 30 x 3, cm.- 102 x 67 x 8

"2993 (Fili - Bianco, Nero)

2008-04-05T16:06:00.000-07:00

inches- 48 x 48 x 8, cm.- 122 x 122 x 20

detail

"3397 (Sotoportego Porton dei Mori)"

2008-04-05T15:48:00.001-07:00

inches- 48 x 48 x 8, cm.- 122 x 122 x 20, click on images to enlarge

detail

"Niente O"

2008-04-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

inches- 48 x 48 x 8, cm.- 122 x 122 x 20

detail

Installation Views - BGH Gallery, Santa Monica, 2005 (click on image to enlarge)

2007-02-04T15:49:00.000-08:00

Works from BGH Gallery exhibition 2005 (click on image to enlarge)

2007-02-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

"Four Square"

inches 21 x 21 x 3

"Per Il Ghetto" *

inches 28 x 48 x 2

"Per La Cucina" *

inches 41 x 66 x 7

"Protractor"

inches 30 x 42 x 4

2007-02-04T15:36:00.000-08:00

"Abitato" *

inches 32 x 24 x 2

"Fondamenta dei Ormesini" *

inches 26 x 36 x 5

"Fantasmi nella Nuvola"

inches 24 x 40 x 2

2007-02-04T15:33:00.000-08:00

"Psicadelica"

inches 29 x 48 x 3

Three Commissioned Paintings (click on image to enlarge)

2006-12-22T10:53:00.000-08:00

2006-12-22T10:44:00.000-08:00

2006-12-22T10:41:00.000-08:00