Meet Matthew Penkala: painter/photographer/professor/person

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matthew Penkala and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matthew, alright, let’s jump in with a deep one – what’s you’re definition for success?
There’s an old Dead Kennedy’s live album where someone in the crowd is repetitively screaming at Jello Biafra, “autograph god damn it!” over and over again, ad nauseam, seemingly with a mouth full of lightning. In response, Jello belts back with fangs, “Sign it with my dental charts!” That line has always held weight with me. Sure, it’s a blatant fuck you, but it also speaks volumes in that there is no interest in vanity, fame, or a vacuous consumerist cultural notion of success. I can’t speak for others, nor would I entertain the idea, but to me, the idea of success resides altogether elsewhere. I’m a painter and a photographer, not an artist. Culture defines art, but to me, if you get into art as a business because you want to buy a yacht or snatch up property, great, to each their own, cash in and do your best Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst all the way to Steve Mnuchin’s penthouse. To me, who gives a fork about that insipid financial nattering? That’s quantifiable material gain, not success. Telling me that success is located in or an equivalent to fame or material gain, is like telling the cancer patient their teeth have coffee stains. I tend to fall somewhere within a quote at times attributed to Winston Churchill in that “Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” Enthusiasm and perseverance go a long way in this game. To me, success rests in each piece you make if guided by enthusiasm and perseverance. Every painting I make is a series of failures that I “fix” along the way. No one else knows about these series of failures- they become tiny little secrets that turn into visual language manifested as an object. Without those secrets, without those failures, without the enthusiasm to keep at it, you have standardized rubbish with about as much “success” as a playlist constructed by an algorithm å la Apple Music. But more directly, I think success is just getting through the day as this mess of a planet is being burned to cinders by an invisible dragon of a virus.  

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I got where I am through blind ambition, naivete, hard fucking work, failures, those that saw something in me, and a 1994 Nissan pickup. My “art” locates itself somewhere in all of that, as well as a fondness for all forms of language (visual or otherwise), being a mid-west refugee, and varying inspirations from the Light and Space artists to the Impressionists, and musical forms and bands ranging from punk rock to Radiohead. If something sets me apart from others, I’d say its my DNA structure and a firm belief that art, or anything else for that matter, doesn’t have to make sense.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First let me qualify this by saying I wouldn’t go anywhere – there’s a god damn pandemic treating humanity like Zed got handled by Marsellus. But if days were different and I didn’t have to worry about breathing death in, I’d drop a couple hundred at KazuNori then head directly to Footsies to drink my weight in beer. After that, maybe ricochet through the streets and see what happens. Rinse and repeat.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are two things that I would like to dedicate this shoutout to: Professor Bill Jenkins at ASU, and the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Bill Jenkins opened up the world of thought, theory, and criticality to me by pointing me in the right direction of things to read, music to appreciate, and the idea that the best conversations are shared over a beer or 13. And I don’t think I’d be an artist today if it weren’t for seeing the movie Close Encounters – on the surface its about getting off this rock via a spaceship, but also being an artist while doing so.

Website: www.matthewpenkalastudio.com
Instagram: maushoo

Image Credits
Matthew Penkala