April 5, 2022 GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A Grand Rapids Community College assistant professor is using 14 years of his artwork to illustrate the apocalypse in the newest exhibit at the Paul Collins Art Gallery.
“Tradigital,” with the works of Matthew Schenk, runs through the end of April at the gallery, located on Raleigh J. Finkelstein Hall’s fourth floor at 143 Bostwick Ave. NE. The gallery is open 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; admission is free.
Schenk, who has taught in GRCC’s Visual Arts Department since 2019, said the exhibit looks at various “art is dead” declarations, which he notes first started in 1839, and media pronouncements that this is the end of days and the world is in ruins.
“These particular pieces are a selection of my work over the last 14 years,” he said. “They start out as observation of the human form and beauty, and devolve into confronting the viewer with our insecurities with views of the apocalypse bogeyman and its visual symbols – guns, technology, gas masks and grit.”
Before joining GRCC, Schenk taught illustration and medical illustration at Ferris State University’s Kendall College of Art and Design for 11 years. From 1997 to 2005, he was a coordinator and production supervisor at Columbia Tristar Children’s Entertainment, now Sony Television Animation, where he worked on “Jackie Chan Adventures,” “Men in Black: The Animated Series” and “Jumanji.”
He received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Michigan State University and a master’s in figurative painting from Academy of Art University.
Schenk teaches Two-Dimensional Design, Color, Digital Foundations, and Digital Painting.