Otherworldly “Procession”

 

This painting was inspired by some oddly postured birds and their solemn formation I observed, and eventually the image morphed into a funeral process with a dead bird on the stretcher accompanied by sad mourners of various types of birds. The painting is depleted of colors, as fitting to the serious occasion, and the focus entirely on shape, contrast, and narrative ritual.

By employing surreal anthropomorphism, this painting conflated the familiar daily life and the mysterious animal kingdom. By removing the natural colors, the painting elevated the ordinary event of mortality into a sacred collective act. By taking a familiar, quiet moment of loss and expanding it into a dramatic ritual, the familiar turns strange—prompting reflection on memory, reverence, and how we ascribe deep meaning to the smallest, most fragile lives.

Procession
22″ x 28″
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2017

This painting will be exhibited from November 14th through December 16th in a juried exhibition, titled “Convergence of Creativity: Unexpected” in Lindsay Dirkx Brown Art Gallery at San Ramon Community Center, San Ramon, California.

An Oil Painting "Refuse"

 

My oil painting “Refuse” was inspired by the pile of clothes discarded to be recycled or reused. They are not waste; rather, they are materials for future purposes. Berkeley is a land of the free, and people can reinvent and grow into a better version of themselves through ingenuity and diligent labor. This pile of “junk”, the rejected, actually is dignified and rather beautiful in both colors and shape. Nothing is without merit and value; the collective shape resembles that of the spread tail feathers of a peacock, vibrant and alluring. There is hope that resides in this pile of “junk” and it points to a rejuvenated future.

Refuse
28” x 22”
Oil on Canvas
Completed in 2021

© Matthew Felix Sun
www.matthewfelixsun.com

A Solo Virtual Exhibition: Human Conditions: Portraits of a Fraying Age

Gallery 2727 in Berkeley is presenting my solo virtual exhibition: Human Conditions: Portraits of a Fraying Age (February 1 – March 3, 2026), featuring 21 figurative and portrait paintings of mine.

I depict life frankly and critically, as visual surfaces and interior qualities. Instead of verisimilitude, I strive to discover and capture what is hidden, emphasizing the implicit and the unspoken.

Though I sometimes use more vibrant colors to express enhanced emotions, or allow more exuberant colors to generate a dimension of visual excitement, acknowledging that joy remains, I tend to narrow my palette, deliberately stripping away the noise.

For Human Conditions: Portraits of a Fraying Age, I have assembled a group of twenty-one oils painted over the last twenty-some years, mostly portraits and figurative pieces. The majority of these are black and white, while some are mainly monochromatic with muted coloration, and a few are inverted images like photographic negatives. All the sitters, singly or in groups, are melancholic, sad, yearning, or resigned. These images comment on the often sad, isolated nature of modern life, and on a social fabric torn apart by class divides and political schisms, depriving people of identity, hope, and self-determining agency. 

Presenting these images in muted tones, or even black and white, transforms the sitters into ghostly silhouettes that evoke fading memory and a distorted world, where the familiar has become alien and corrupt.

The exhibition also strives to capture the paradox of our time: a world more "connected" than ever, yet populated by individuals who feel more lonely, miserable, and profoundly divided than at any point in history.

 

Five Recent Abstract Paintings

 

I took an abstract painting class recently, which had many assignment of reading, writing, and paintings. The intensive course demanded a lot of focus and concentration and I was able to push myself to produce some work I am quite happy with.

Restive, Gouache on Paper, 14″ x 11″, 2024

Bulwark, Graphite & Gouache on Paper Collage, 14″ x 11″, 2024

Jubilant, Gouache on Paper, 11″ x 14″, 2024

Apparition, Gouache on Paper, 11″ x 14″, 2024

Vortex, Oil on Canvas, 28″ x 22″, 2024

An Inscrutable Portrait, Stare

My 2022 oil painting, Stare, portrays a precocious boy who emerged from a chaotic and somewhat menacing background. The lighter and purer figure demonstrates the relative innocence of the boy, in contrast to the murky and impenetrable swirling background surrounding him like a maelstrom. The somewhat stunned or stupefied expression denoted the moment when his attention was caught, and he stared straight ahead as if confronting the viewers; a moment of a sudden turn of events.

This painting was published in February 2024 by Artistonish, Issue 43.

Pessimistic oil painting “All that is solid”

 

A quote from Karl Marx “All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned” perfectly capture our sad epoch and this monochromatic painting of a disintegrating city/landscape reflects such pessimistic sentiment.

All That Is Solid
Oil on Canvas 22” x 28”
Completed in 2022