Los Angeles-based artist Matt McCormick will release a new book chronicling his Into the Distance series. Entitled Out Of The Great Wide Open, the publication revisits the myth of the American West through a contemporary lens, exploring themes of freedom, nostalgia and isolation.
Created between LA and New York City, McCormick started Into the Distance in 2017, conflating punk rock influences, such as using a faulty printer to transmit grainy landscape textures that he would overlay with cowboy figures, as an embracing of imperfection that is often erased in the picture-perfect capabilities of the social media age today. In the years since, McCormick’s scope has expanded to depict his lone subjects drifting in-and-out of the composition like a scene from a movie — mirroring the blurring of digital and physical, also emblematic of the psychedelic color palettes he uses to call to mind the surreal aesthetics of films, such as Yellow Submarine (1968) and Heavy Metal (1981).
“The heightened hues and grain lend a dreamlike, almost dystopian quality to the landscapes, merging a mythical Americana with a distinctly modern edge,” wrote a release on the book. “His cowboys, suspended in vividly surreal landscapes, offer a commentary on the fading allure of the American West, challenging its romanticized past while confronting the fragmented realities of the present. Into The Distance ultimately stands as a layered reflection on the role of art in navigating history and memory, reshaping and expanding the language of Western art for a modern audience.”
Releasing on the artist’s webshop on December 4, Out Of The Great Wide Open is a hardcover book that measures 8.5 x 11 inches, spans 204 pages and available for preorder.
