He Did the Mash

Just when you think Matt Furie can’t come up with another way to draw a furry animal, there he goes with another way to draw a furry animal. This has been going on for years. His vast collection of cartoon beasts — not only furry but also feathered, scaly, and mutant — seem to have poured out of Jim Henson's brain during night sweats. Some are cute. Some are scary. Some have hamburgers for heads, and others ride bicycles. Many are subtly psychedelic, a little crazy but not too nuts, twisted rainbow monsters you want to befriend or put on a lunchbox. Looking at his oeuvre, you have to think, “Matt Furie is in single-minded pursuit of something — not sure what.” And also: “Is Matt Furie crazy?” He's crazy enough to do whatever the fuck he wants when it comes to art, and it’s paid off with a low-rent style that obscures but cannot mask his serious talent with a pen. In the exhibit “Return to Innocence,” he appears with another artist who does whatever the fuck he wants, Jay Howell, who matches Furie’s colorful tribe with his own, most of whom are very happy, no doubt because they are naked.
June 7-July 25, 2008