Matt Lamb (b. 1932)

Before he became a painter and a sculptor, Chicagoan Matt Lamb had a long, successful business career overseeing a chain of funeral homes. It was only after he survived a life threatening illness at age fifty that he decided to devote his life to creating art. Completely self-taught, his artwork is a reflection of his own strong philosophies and religious beliefs. “My work is like an archaeological dig into the mind and psyche...” says Lamb, “I put a lot of religion in my paintings which helps me work through my philosophies.”

Visually, Lamb’s paintings are generally a play of texture and color. Most of his works have figurative elements with a cast of characters who seem to recur in different configurations in many of the paintings. He says he’s had these images in his mind all of his life: floating heads, plants, fish, animals, birds, Indians, hooded figures, spirits and religious figures.

Not only is Lamb a completely self-taught artist, he created a completely new painting technique. He calls his paintings generational: multiple paintings layered onto the same canvas. He primes his surfaces with a mixture of cement, gesso and oil-based mediums, which takes months to dry. He then paints layer after layer of images over this coarse, textured foundation, often using sandpaper and a blowtorch to blister and morph the image further. What results is often been described as primordial or volcanic.

Lamb’s home base is still Chicago, despite the fact he has studios in many parts of the world including Florida, Wisconsin, Ireland and Germany. Matt Lamb has exhibited his art throughout the world; from the Vatican to the Mall of America.

Check out Matt Lamb: The Art of Success, a new book by Richard Speer available online

Artist Statement
“As I pick my way through life as an artist, I feel I'm a pilgrim in an alien world, living in the material and destined for the spiritual. I try to make sense out of chaotic situations I see all around me and still keep a joyful approach to life.
My work is about the spirit, life, death, resurrection and how we react as people to the events that are brought to our attention. With the information we receive we can be sad and glad, joyful, sorrowful, harsh and pleasurable all at the same time.
How can I be alone in a crowd? The paradoxes of life baffle me. I try to work out my own rationale in my work. The biblical verse I use is, unless we become as little children we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
Because of all the walls we have built to protect ourselves and all of the hidden fears and prejudices we harbor, it is hard for us to become children. To truly interact with my work, I must become like a little child every day of my life. I must admit, this task in not easy.”
--Matt Lamb

"I just want to go around the world, spreading a message of peace and tolerance"

Project related Matt Lamb web sites:
www.mattlamb.com

www.on-line-lamb-project.org

www.the-lamb-umbrellas-for-peace.org
"The global campaign The Lamb Umbrellas for Peace, that began in 2002, consists of painting umbrellas with students from all over the world, exhibiting them in a pacific demonstration. The project's aim is to make children, teachers and artists understand that they become messengers of peace."