Spotlight on Artist Matthew Friedman

Welcome to The Elective’s digital art museum, dedicated to the incredible work of AP Arts students. Each week we highlight a work or series created in one of the AP Arts concentrations—AP 2-D Art and Design, 3-D Art and Design, and AP Drawing (the AP Program also offers Art History and Music Theory)—as well as a statement from the artist (and, occasionally, their teacher).

From the first cave paintings to contemporary breakthroughs in virtually reality, art, in all its forms, has been a crucial way for people to process, make sense of, comment on, and grapple with the world around them. In 2020, there is a lot to process and grapple with—and AP Art students have risen to the challenge. The work many of them submitted in their final portfolios is explicitly of the moment, from commentary on the covid-19 pandemic to the celebration of people of color to the nature of heroism in perilous times.

The work is often challenging and provocative but always insightful, inspiring, and expansive.

This week we feature a sculpture made by Matthew Friedman from Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York.

Here’s Matthew’s statement on the work:

“How can I highlight and celebrate the obsolete details of vintage automobiles and planes through light fixtures and other furniture? How can an extremely modern and minimalist take on complex objects translate to home design?

“I started exploring this aesthetic of taking designs from vintage warplanes with my first wall sconce design. This baseline form became a model for all of my future designs, including chairs, tables, and other light fixtures. Putting them all together into one room helps show not only how they're all connected but how the design evolved. All the pieces are clearly from the same school of thought, but all pull slightly different elemental designs or materials.

“The materials I chose throughout this process took a lot of thought and consideration. Much of it involved looking for inspiration online or from prominent, modern-leaning interior designers. The default materials choices on Fusion360 were slightly limiting, but I soon realized I could customize materials down to the shade, texture, reflectiveness, grain, and more. This completely opened the door to exploring vastly different materials without the consequence of constructing them.”

And here are a couple other works from Mathew’s portfolio:

Student statements are lightly edited for length and clarity.