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Spotlight: Sam Mattax

October 7 – November 7, 2026

Sam Mattax, So I ate potatoes, 2026

Sam Mattax

So I ate potatoes, 2026

oil, oil stick, lead pencil, colored pencil on canvas

72 x 84 inches

Sam Mattax, A bird called, 2026

Sam Mattax

A bird called, 2026

oil, oil stick, lead pencil and colored pencil on canvas

72 x 84 inches

Sam Mattax, Gorgeous appetite, 2026

Sam Mattax

Gorgeous appetite, 2026

oil, oil stick, lead pencil, colored pencil on canvas

78 x 70 inches

Press Release

Fredericks & Freiser is pleased to introduce Spotlight, a new series of focused presentations drawn from our ongoing conversations with artists. Conceived as something closer to a studio visit than a conventional exhibition, each Spotlight marks a moment when a new body of work has begun to take shape. Rather than waiting for that body of work to be complete, the series brings a concentrated view of the studio into the gallery, offering a snapshot of an artist’s thinking as it develops. While works presented in a Spotlight may later become part of a larger exhibition, they allow the viewer a unique opportunity to engage directly with an artist’s process at a singular moment in time.
 

 

The first Spotlight brings together three recent large-scale paintings by Sam Mattax. Built through dragging, scraping, and rebuilding, the works mark a shift in his practice as forms begin to multiply. The result is a new density and intricacy as the paintings move from strategies of accumulation toward something more rooted in the structure of the abstraction itself.