STARGAZER
Michael Brennan and Matthew Deleget
Portal 5, New York, February, 2025
Michael Brennan and Matthew Deleget, an introspective pairing at Portal 5 offered me new discoveries, questions, and thoughts about the work and connections both artists offered. In this exhibition titled Stargazer, viewers were given many opportunities to discover many new things, and take a deeper look at the small details and surfaces of these works.
Inspired by film, as if in perpetual motion, the edges of Brennan’s works often reflect a piece of a film strip, a singular scene or two, pieced together on the canvas. Flowing through each other, each carrying meaning within it. The taped edge or middle line is not a separation, but instead a moment of pause into the next space. A moment of consideration.
That space seems to hold a continuation of the space that follows, like in the image below, without showing it. We have to piece it together, as if it was a scene transition in a film, and we have to see within that blank space, a perceived motion, and fill in the details.
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The smaller works on the shelves by Brennan offered me many views and surfaces with which to spend my time. It was calming, looking at the works and feeling the weight of the passage of time, fully experiencing the works as if watching Brennan create them firsthand in the studio. It’s as if the masterful flow of the knife gliding over a focused, smooth surface, with such care and intuition resembles that of flowing water. The water always seems to know where it's going, and it doesn’t stop or fight to get there, it just gets there steadily because it knows how to get where it needs to go, (like muscle memory, and a mastery of movement).
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A few of the larger pieces resembled that of a slow panoramic shot, building up the scene and making the viewer feel the passing of time until the next motion. Other pieces offered a quicker cut, the artist’s hand visible in every motion made on the canvas, to create the surface we see before us. The glint of additions into the painted surfaces offer us surprises- if we were willing to get up close and spend the time with the piece.
It is a film within a painting. The building up of essential details and focusing on what the paint wants to do on the surface of the canvas he prepares. While his titles offered objects or places, to help place us within a scene or a time period, the artist’s knowledge of the histories behind that which inspires him is evident.
The surfaces were atmospheric and ethereal, despite the paint being viscous and often thick in the beginning of the process on the pallet, Brennan thins and removes paint with his palette knife to allow slivers of light to peer through the surface just enough. Just enough to illuminate a space just below the surface, as if you could peel the first layer of a flowing river away from itself to better make out the depths below, and suspend yourself within that space. With that idea of suspension, the painting becomes an experience.
In the larger works, Brennan created his own space with the paint and within the frame of his canvas. The depth of space carries us through as we venture to find something, however, knowing the exhibition’s title being Stargazer and the influences that come along with it, you must know what you are even looking for before you can find it. Looking into each work is like looking at the sky for such a sustained amount of time, or even a body of water, and noticing more finite details within. To me, the flying shards of the palette knife seem to become the stars, the places where canvas shows through resemble glimmers.
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The paint is expertly placed and handled so the spaces often resemble a refraction or a cracked reflection, again, something “just below the surface”.
Brennan knows what he can do to push the boundaries of his materials and surfaces to work alongside the paint, but not push it too far. It’s just enough to do exactly what he wants, while letting the painting also guide him to what it wants to be too. It allows the space to breathe and expand within the canvas.
Many friends I know are often too quick to read something or are too swift to place or find meaning within something, and while I know the influences behind many of the works well, I don’t push a definitive meaning onto any of the pieces- I seek out meanings as the works reveal them to me. Similar to a scene in an Ozu film, where he focuses on a household vase on the floor for an extended period of time- he makes you feel the weight of stillness, and tests the passage of time, making viewers fully aware they are experiencing time passing by, waiting for the next scene, waiting for meaning to emerge in its own way.
A push/pull motion, like a director, Brennan works his way through opacity and light, gesture and shapes, mark and overall form in each piece simultaneously. He is literally carving out of the painted surface with strokes of light or “absence” that turn into a form on their own, pushing and pulling against the remaining painted surface.
The surfaces are able to be delved into, and are certainly worth the time and care of a deeper introspection, a slower wading through the weeds on the riverbank, per se. A glide right over the water’s surface, wondering what is reflected from the surface above, and what may reveal itself to us from the surface down below.
Getting to see Matthew Deleget’s work for the first time in person was a great experience. As someone who loves art and the research behind it- research and inspiration being a large factor within the work was refreshing to me. Matthew’s works seem diaristic - offering many new discoveries the longer you stay with the works - reminiscent of the act of stargazing itself. Even if you know what you’re looking for- you still may discover something new while looking. I found many surprise notes within the works such as happy discoveries of the mentions Venice in one piece and music quotes for the piece in honor of Bob Dylan’s birthday, titled Sunspots, the Sun’s not Yellow, Wednesday May 24, 2023, 4:26 pm. The surfaces were cared for and calculated- even down to the handwriting, which for me, acted as if it was the presence of the artist, and I could picture him writing and thinking about these small entries that surround each sphere as he was making the works- the details are very well researched.
​It was refreshing to get a sense of what Deleget was thinking as he was looking at the skies and creating these works, it was as if I was standing next to him, me being a novice stargazer by any stretch of the imagination, while him, the experienced traveler, guides me through the depths of the skies above. I only know the main pieces to astronomy and the unknowns of space, and while it interested me, I never knew where to start. These works on paper act as a bit of a jumping off point, a window into starting on the journey myself.
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Splitting the room with Michael Brennan’s ethereal and atmospheric paintings, Matthew Deleget’s works fused really well with Brennan’s, offering pieces that required the viewer to slow down and enjoy the nuisances within all the works in the show. As soon as you enter the room, the uniformity of the framed circles allowed me to experience each piece individually and step back to enjoy them as a whole as well, which provided a great, in depth discussion of what the show’s theme of stargazer may mean to the artist.
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Getting to see this show several times offered me the opportunity to discover something new about each piece, each time I set foot in the space. Getting to spend more time with Deleget's work was wonderful, being the first time I’ve seen his work in person, I was appreciative of the opportunity to get a glimpse into the ideas and processes he uses for his works. The Portal became a bit of a research room for me, one where I could delve into both artwork and books at my own pace, and quietly enjoy the energy of the space.
The ephemera that adorned the table in the center of the room helped me with further context to the works. Knowing a bit more of what Deleget was looking into, helped to further the story and my curiosity in learning more about the subjects he depicts within his works. Also, after finding out that both Matthew and Michael traded some of these art catalogs and books to further their own discussions and affinity for the subjects of abstraction, art, and astronomy, really pulled the show together for me. These are two artists and friends who’ve taken many journeys together, while their art practices may be slightly different in terms of presentation, the surfaces displayed some of the same qualities- a deeper space, introspection, and a care for depicting and showing us what inspires them.
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- Taylor Bielecki, July 26, 2025