Matthew Choberka: Living in These Times
“To live in these times is in a lot of ways scary, and in all of my recent works I’m working to acknowledge that, and to overcome it,” says Ogden artist Matthew Choberka, whose paintings are ablaze with nearly-neon color, informed abstraction, and monstrous figures that push, pull, topple and scream their way across the canvas. Terrifying yet beautiful, overwhelming yet approachable, Choberka’s work is a glimpse into the artist’s psyche where underlying anxieties over current events inform his actions in the studio.
While Choberka’s process is stimulated by the artist’s visceral response to personal and political strife, his reflexive way of moving paint or building a connected composition from a series of abstract marks is undoubtedly informed by his life’s journey as a student and teacher of the arts. Choberka was born in Peoria, Illinois in a family who valued education; his mother was a librarian, and Choberka was well read from a young age. He pursued his undergraduate degree at Colombia College where he initially studied photography but ultimately discovered his interest in painting and drawing. A drawing professor pointed him toward the New York Studio School as an opportunity for immersive study in those disciplines. The years that followed were invaluable to Choberka’s artistic growth, ingraining principles that he equally returns to and reckons with as he establishes his voice and identity as a contemporary painter.