Matthew Lutz-Kinoy’s pink pom-pom utopia

American artist Matthew Lutz-Kinoy transforms Museum Frieder Burda’s Salon Berlin into a strange new world, marking his first solo institutional show in Germany

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Window to the Clouds' pink pom-poms
Installation view: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy. ’Window to the Clouds’; Salon Berlin, Museum Frieder Burda. An opening of the field, 2020. The Ray, 2019.
(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist; Photography: Thomas Bruns)

At Museum Frieder Burda’s Salon Berlin, visitors can expect to be consumed by a cloud of pink: strings of rhythmic pink pom-poms dangle from the ceiling; soft pink carpet cushions underfoot. Here, Paris-based American artist Matthew Lutz-Kinoy is exercising his fascination with immersive spiritual transitions and offering viewers a portal to an alternative reality, even for just a moment. 

When it comes to media, the artist’s allegiance is far from set in stone. But at the heart of a practice that spans sculpture, printmaking, ceramics and painting is performance. In his exhibition, ‘Window to The Clouds’, the wool pom-poms, which frame new paintings and ceramic works, are both filters through which to view, and interactive installations in their own right.

Paintings are embedded with all the carnal potency of 18th-century traditions

Installation view: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy. 'Window to the Clouds'; Salon Berlin, Museum Frieder Burda Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, An opening of the field, 2020; The Ray, 2019. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist; Photography: Thomas Bruns)

Lutz-Kinoy’s paintings are embedded with all the carnal potency of 18th-century traditions: liberal application paint, vigorous bodily forms, gestural brushstrokes and ethereal translucent layering which explores depth, both in concept and physicality. These works are dense with references to divine and spiritual symbolism: there are cherubs, angels, and nods to Auguste Rodin’s La Porte de l'Enfer (1880-1917), itself inspired by Dante’s monumental narrative poem, Inferno. 

Among his many influences, Lutz-Kinoy draws on the work of performance theorist José Esteban Muñoz, specifically, his book Cruising Utopia (2009), in which he writes, ‘Futurity can be a problem,’ arguing for the existence of many potential futures within the present. In ‘Window to The Clouds’, Lutz-Kinoy fuses the vocabulary of representation and performance to illustrate that time, though quantifiable, is not linear. §

Pillow In The Form Of Reclining Child With Polkadots

Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, Pillow In The Form Of Reclining Child With Polkadots, 2018. Glazed ceramic. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Fitzpatrick Gallery; Photography: Andrea Morin)

Wallpaper on roof top of room

Installation view: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, 'Window to the Clouds'; Salon Berlin, Museum Frieder Burda.

(Image credit: Thomas Bruns)

Painting on wall with floral balls

Installation view: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, ’Window to the Clouds’; Salon Berlin, Museum Frieder Burda. An opening of the field, 2020. Exhausted Angel Receives an Announcement in Rodin’s Garden, 2019. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Vince Q.Y. Xie; Photography: Thomas Bruns)

Paintings on wall

Installation view: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, ’Window to the Clouds’; Salon Berlin, Museum Frieder Burda. Vue du torrent du Valentin dans le parc des Buttes Chaumont au sud, 2020; Capriccio à Paris, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Mendes Wood DM São Paulo, New York and Brussels

(Image credit: Thomas Bruns)

Floral hanging balls with with background

Installation view: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, 'Window to the Clouds'; Salon Berlin, Museum Frieder Burda Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, An opening of the field, 2020. Wool. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist; Photography: Thomas Bruns)

Paintings on wall with white wall

Installation view: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy 'Window to the Clouds'; Salon Berlin, Museum Frieder Burda.

(Image credit: Thomas Bruns)

Painting on plate

Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, Keramikos 3, 2019. Hand-painted set of 20 glazed ceramic plates (no. 14). 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Mendes Wood DM São Paulo, New York and Brussels)

Painting on wall with floral balls

Installation view: Matthew Lutz-Kinoy. 'Window to the Clouds'; Salon Berlin, Museum Frieder Burda. An opening of the field, 2020. Lombardy Capriccio, 2020. 

(Image credit: Courtesy of the artist and Mendes Wood DM São Paulo, New York and Brussels; Photography: Thomas Bruns)

INFORMATION

Matthew Lutz-Kinoy, ’Window to The Clouds’, until 5 June 2021, Salon Berlin, Museum Frieder Burda

museum-frieder-burda.de

ADDRESS

Auguststraße 11-13
10117 Berlin

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Harriet Lloyd-Smith

Harriet Lloyd-Smith was the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.