Matt Siber

This image is the result of a creative breakthrough I had one afternoon in the empty school. I had been working this way for a year and a half and was searching for fresh ways to approach my idea. This was the first assemblage I made that used something other than the floor as a platform. This selection of chairs was present in the hallway at the bottom of these stairs. It is a typical variety of styles, materials, and colors. This assemblage began with a single chair inserted into the stair railing with a second chair on top as a counter weight to keep it in place. The rest followed from there with a couple of minor collapses before reaching its final form.

Matt Siber (b.1972) is a visual artist based in Chicago working in photography, digital imaging, installation and sculpture. With an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago, he has had solo exhibitions in Madrid, Berlin and Chicago among other venues. His first monograph, Idol Structures, was published by the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago in 2015 in conjunction with his solo exhibition. His artwork is part of many private and public permanent collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, and The Bidwell Foundation. His work has been published internationally in such publications as ArtForum, Sculpture Magazine, Ain’t Bad, Aperture and EXIT Magazine. He has received grants from the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation, the Aaron Siskind Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council. Siber is Associate Professor, Adjunct in the Photography Department of The School of The Art Institute of Chicago.