Matt Lifson

Matt Lifson’s paintings explore the intersections of memory, desire, and queer identity, often moving between lived realities and borrowed cultural narratives. His work blurs the boundaries of intimacy and spectacle, drawing from personal history as well as media imagery to construct scenes that are both dreamlike and unsettling. Through this approach, Lifson examines how queer relationships have been mythologized and sensationalized, while reclaiming a deeper humanity within his figures. Working primarily in painting and drawing, Lifson employs a wide range of techniques—from the immediacy of expressive brushwork to the slow layering of contradictory images reminiscent of surrealist strategies. His compositions frequently evoke erotic tableaux yet resist reduction to surface allure, instead delving into vulnerability, longing, and emotional complexity. By merging impressionistic gestures with spectral, blurred imagery drawn from film stills, queer media, and personal archives, his works question how identity and memory are shaped and eroded in a culture oversaturated with images. Through these layered visual narratives, Lifson creates spaces that oscillate between clarity and obscurity, seduction and critique. His practice foregrounds the complexity of queer experience, offering poignant reflections on desire, intimacy, and the fragile construction of self. ...