Dormitory dance

Artist Finley, Matthew American, b.1972

Date2024

MediumInkjet print with hand applied elements (glitter, rhinestones, etc.)

DimensionsImage: 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 in. (13.3 x 13.3 cm)
Paper: 6 x 6 in. (15.2 x 15.2 cm)
Frame: 9 x 9 x 1 1/2 in. (22.9 x 22.9 x 3.8 cm)

Credit LineGift of the artist

Object number2024:6

About the ArtistMatthew Finley’s work bridges history and contemporary practice, drawing on classical art, found photographs, and handcrafted processes such as ambrotype and tintype. His series An Impossibly Normal Life (2020–2024) recontextualizes vintage photographs he sourced from eBay to construct a fictional family album about his late uncle, whom he initially understood to have been gay. Finley embellishes these everyday snapshots with glitter and rhinestones, invoking queer cultural histories of drag, disco, and camp. In contrast to the secrecy surrounding queer relationships in the midcentury United States, Finley imagines an idealized life in which his uncle could live freely and joyfully.

Matthew Finley is a core member of the Advanced Photography Critique Group at the Center for Photography at Woodstock and received the Juror Award in the Visual Armistice 10th Annual Juried Showcase. His work has been exhibited at Foley Gallery in New York and the Los Angeles Center for Photography, among other venues, and has appeared in publications including Oxford American, Shots Magazine, and Plates to Pixels. His photographs are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and History in Lancaster, CA, and the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO.