Matthew J. Feiner
A few years back, Feiner carted this Fuji bicycle sign over to Artspace, as his submission to the main group exhibition for City-Wide Open Studios. The painters showing work alongside him, looking forward to one of Feiner's better known collages, were steamed. Submissions to the central show were meant to introduce an artist's work more generally. So Feiner, listing aluminum, plastic, electricity as his materials, brought in this to represent his occupying opus of the moment: the Devil's Gear Bike Shop. "They didn't get the joke! I said, 'That's my piece. That's what I'm working on.' They might have guessed Feiner wouldn't go the predictable route. His initial entry into the art world was no more conventional. One minute he was a self-billed "house-painting, beer-drinking, bike-racing fool" out in Madison, the next he was a show-stealing performer with the Snazz and Guffaw improv troupe in New Haven, he explained in his studio space above the bike shop Wednesday. "The others, graduates from Yale and Columbia, used to ask me where I did my training. They couldn't believe it" when Feiner gave the name of his high school. Before a race-limiting injury put extra time on his hands and a friend's urgings got him into a Thursday acting class, he'd never heard of improv. But then "these people were teaching you to do what we do in life. We improvise. We perform our identities every day. You are whoever you think you are." Soon the bike-racer-turned-actor was performing "Painter," "Collage Artist," and "Found-Object Sculptor" just as convincingly. An artist Feiner'd met downtown came over to the then-24 year-old's place for lunch. "I took him down to the studio -- I didn't even know it was a studio, just a place where I drew and sketched and messed around like I'd always done -- and he said, I didn't know you were an artist!" Three months later, equipped with new friend-taught skills in silk-screening and welding, Feiner had his first show. His second was in New York City. From then on, the New Haven galleries just kept biting. "Action art, non-representational found-object collage: I did whatever I wanted to, and it worked. My mom calls me her media magnet!" "New Haven is a great art town. Just under-appreciated." Toward the mid-'90s, Feiner hit hard times. He got sick with a behavior-altering disease. He "felt pretty insane." He "sort of lifeboated to Austin, Texas." It wasn't until he got better in '96 that he rowed on back -- to "pump out some pretty incredible art work" about the experience. "I wanted everyone to feel like what it felt like for me," he said about making the huge, thousands-images silkscreen collages with which he broke back into the scene. Feiner is still "backlogged" with the work he wants to make. The unfinished pieces awaiting him in his studio up above the shop date back for inspiration to the years-old experiences of a broken engagement and the death of his dad. When life-changing waves like those hit Feiner, he starts collecting things. Like these boxes, rescued out of the old FD Graves building where Feiner used to live. "I'll start gathering things up, and later they'll become part of a piece." This leaf-lined trunk holds his father's beloved old telephone. But "I don't know what they're about yet. I usually don't -- not til I'm about half way through." That can be awhile these days. Since 1999 and the birth of the Devil's Gear Bike Shop, Feiner's been pretty otherwise occupied. What did the artist do last Wednesday? "I worked on a lot of bikes." He also arranged with LEAP leaders about when the youth group will come in to start their weekly bike-maintenance workshop -- one of a handful of ways the shop extends two-wheel opportunities out to the New Haven community. "I love the bike shop. It's the easiest thing I know. I love giving back and teaching people about racing and riding, after all it's done for me." Does he miss art-making? He doesn't have to. He's at work on his most ambitious piece yet: "growing the bike culture" in this city. You already know where to check out the primary installation." by Tess Wheelwright | July 3, 2006 09:58 AM New Haven Independent visit www.matthewjfeiner.com |
