ANOTHER DREAM

For McCormick, such images are points of entry into larger questions of identity and aspiration. Among the many expressions of those ideas is McCormick's ongoing collaboration with Jérôme Mage, which has yielded limited-edition eyewear, artist books, and Another Dream (Summon the Spirit), the monumental installation permanently housed at the JMM Gallery in Hollywood. 

First unveiled in 2022, Another Dream (Summon the Spirit) brought together two of the artist's most enduring subjects: the horse and the automobile. The work itself emerged from a constellation of influences that included Walter De Maria’s Bel Air Trilogy and Richard Prince’s celebrated Hood paintings, both of which helped shape his interest in the ways mythology, memory, and desire become embedded within ordinary things. The reintroduction of the JULIEN arrives as part of that same conversation. A classic Wellington frame reissued in two new color stories, it features intricate wirecore artwork that translates imagery commonly found in McCormick’s paintings and installations into an object designed for everyday use. 

McCormick's work is informed as much by observation as imagination. Having lived between California and New York for years, he speaks about the country as something viewed from multiple angles rather than a fixed idea. The open landscapes of the West remain central to his work, but so do the harder edges of the city and the social rituals that shape daily life. Moving between those environments has given him a broader perspective. As he explains, the distance between them allows him to see American culture from more than one side, and to engage with it in ways that might not be possible from a single vantage point. That same sensibility surfaces throughout his work, whether expressed through a painting, an installation, or a pair of spectacles. 

JMM: How has your relationship to Another Dream (Summon the Spirit) changed over time, if at all?

Matt McCormick (MM): With everything you make, you kind of look back at things and think about how you could change things, or what you're happy with. But Another Dream is a work that I really stand by, and I really like. Jérôme really supports everything I do, and so I didn't feel like there was any pressure to do anything that I wasn't truly behind. I presented the idea, he liked it, and we just went with it.

As an artist, you're constantly evolving, and I think it was something that evolved with me. It worked thematically, it fit into the language I'm trying to create, and it spoke to my influences in a way that still resonates with me. It's a work that I'm okay with existing in the conversation I'm trying to create around my body of work in general. I stand by it exactly the same as I did when I made it, but I've been able to live with it a little more. It's nice that it exists where it does, because people see it all the time.

JMM: What imagery did the new color stories bring up for you, and what mood or tone were you going for?

MM: For me, it's less about trying to tell stories through the colors and more about making things that I'll enjoy in 10 years and 20 years. I wanted to do what I like. I've made things over the years where I bent the knee a little bit on colors, and I think I made things that I wouldn't necessarily wear.

With the first round of frames that we made—I wear these glasses every day. I have a pair in my truck, I have a pair in my bag, I keep them everywhere because I wear them constantly. I wanted to make the thing that I will want to wear, no matter what trends or stylistic choices are happening. For me it's always: what's going to feel the most timeless? I didn't really want to reinvent the wheel. What I like about JMM is they're based on historical design conversations, and I love the timelessness of this specific frame.

JMM: Tell me about the difference between working with everyday wearable objects versus installation-based work. What does eyewear allow you to do that the installation did not? How did you approach working at such a miniature scale with details like the wirecore artwork?

MM: For me, it's almost less like different languages and more like different dialects of the same language. I'm an artist that's willing and open to work outside of the traditional art space. Whether it's a painting, a drawing, a film, a photograph, a sculpture, a pair of glasses, or a whiskey—I just released a whiskey last week—what can I do to it to have it be unified with the rest of the world I'm trying to build? 

Obviously the canvas is much smaller, but I kind of have the tape of what the world is in my mind playing whenever I go into creative mode. Whether it's the glasses or a show, I'll spend a year thinking about it. I spent six months just loosely thinking about my current show. Then I went to the gallery, stood in the space, got on the plane to come home, and figured the entire show out on the flight.

That's kind of how it is with the glasses. I think about it a lot, but don't put pen to paper and don't actually come up with anything yet. Then I sit down somewhere where I'm purely focused on that one thing, and it happens really quick. You just figure out the pieces and how to arrange them.

JMM: Now that you're working between New York and LA, how does your sense of place change how the American iconography appears or evolves in your work?

MM: I've lived in New York off and on for the last 20 years, and when I set up a studio there I really felt for the first time that I was gaining the edge that I appreciate in work. You live in California and it's very open. There's a lot more nature. Then you're in New York and it's hard edges, a lot of straight lines, a lot of man-made environments. That's a big part of what turns the creative vision toward what I appreciate.

I'm trying to have a conversation with my views on America and the culture that surrounds my life in America, and existing between the two lets me see it from multiple sides. If I was in just one location, I don't think I would have as full a way of looking at it or talking about it.

JMM: How do you think about the role of solitude versus collaboration in your practice?

MM: I'm someone who really likes to be alone. The best work gets done for me as soon as everyone leaves. Being able to actually be alone and be able to think is really important. Everything administrative happens when everyone's there, and everything creative happens when everyone leaves. I need to be able to turn music on and be in the room and get into that flow state. Solitude is what comes up with the work and how the work gets made.

What I love about New York is that I don't have to try to be social. I walk out my door and I run into people. I end up going to shows, which I never go to in Los Angeles, and that's hugely informative for my practice. With collaborative projects it's the same thing. Because someone else's mind is attached to the end product, you can evolve in ways that you wouldn't automatically or necessarily. That's kind of a great gift of that whole process.