matumbi_studio

Ante Up by Taj Matumbi
Opening Reception at SooVac gallery: Saturday, December 6, 2025, from 6 pm-9pm
Exhibition Runs: December 7 - January 18, 2026

Chicanery
2025
acrylic on canvas
48 x 60 in.

Appreciation post for my sweet girlfriend thank you for all the love, support, friendship, and patience. We have had a lot of adventures over the years and I’m extremely lucky and grateful to have such a beautiful, creative, and kind soul by my side. 🌸🥰❣️

Here are some install shots of my current exhibition,
RISE AND SHINE is on view through May 3rd at Maus Contemporary.

Photo credit

Rise and Shine stems from a curiosity around formal and figurative abstraction, which I use to investigate real and imagined biographies, including my own. My process is driven by a shifting cooperation between intuitive gesture and intentional action, further guided by formal and material restraints that lead me to arrive at unexpected outcomes and conclusions.

During the early years of the pandemic, I started sketching figures loosely copied from drawings made in my adolescent years. This practice led to deeper conceptual questioning and motif development on the subject of representation and identity. For example, the series of works on paper “Das Boot” explores American exceptionalism and the common expression, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” In more recent paintings, I depict characters reminiscent of 18th-century royalty, re-imagining ruling class and court figures. Works such as Chariot and Lighten Up, both included in the upcoming exhibition “Rise and Shine,” address the erasure of individuals historically and still today within the dominant White narrative.



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✏️📅
SAVE THE DATE!
TAJ MATUMBI: RISE AND SHINE opens Friday, March 15 (6-8pm) at Maus Contemporary.

image:
Taj Matumbi
“Passing Me By”
2023
acrylic, graphite, and oil stick on canvas
48 by 48 in. (121,9 by 121,9 cm)

“Rise and Shine stems from a curiosity around formal and figurative abstraction, which I use to investigate real and imagined biographies, including my own. My process is driven by a shifting cooperation between intuitive gesture and intentional action, further guided by formal and material restraints that lead me to arrive at unexpected outcomes and conclusions.

During the early years of the pandemic, I started sketching figures loosely copied from drawings made in my adolescent years. This practice led to deeper conceptual questioning and motif development on the subject of representation and identity. For example, the series of works on paper "Das Boot" explores American exceptionalism and the common expression, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” In more recent paintings, I depict characters reminiscent of 18th-century royalty, re-imagining ruling class and court figures. Works such as "Chariot" and "Lighten Up," both included in the upcoming exhibition "Rise and Shine," address the erasure of individuals historically and still today within the dominant White narrative.”

- Taj Matumbi


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