STUDIO10

56 Bogart Street Brooklyn NY 11206 .

Date: May 10, 2014

Book signing 3 – 5 P.M.
Performance: Matt Freedman & Tim Spelios 4 P.M.

Matt Freedman: Relatively Indolent but Relentless

For Immediate Release:

Please join us on Saturday, May 10th for a book signing and performance with Matt Freedman. This April marked the publication of Relatively Indolent but Relentless by Seven Stories Press, and STUDIO10 is thrilled to announce this event in celebration of the book’s wide release. Matt Freedman will be at the gallery to sign books from 3 – 5 p.m. Tim Spelios and Matt Freedman will perform at 4 p.m.

For 35 harrowing days between October 3 and December 1, 2012 artist Matt Freedman underwent radiation and chemotherapy at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital for treatment of Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, a rare cancer that had spread from his tongue to his neck to his lungs by the time it was discovered. Relatively Indolent but Relentless is the journal he kept during the 60 days surrounding his treatment, a graphic memoir filled with words and illustrations that offer an intimate account of the powerlessness and underlying fear intrinsic to grappling with serious illness.

From Day One – “Will sugar kill me? Will no sugar save me? I hate there might be things entirely under my control that may control my survival. I want fate to decide everything.” – to the final days of his treatment – “It’s special to be sick at the hospital, it’s not special to be sick when you’re back home trying to live a normal life. I’m not sure I will be so good at that.” – Freedman offers a controlled stream-of-consciousness guide through not only cancer treatment but also a life well lived: recollections of childhood, college years, friendships and romances, plus a daily accounting of annoyances both minor and troubling. Filled with humor and heartache, brutal honesty and bracing descriptions of intense medical procedures, Relatively Indolent presents a modern account of living with, and surviving (in the moment, at least) life’s most terrible and unpredictable circumstances. The result is a journal that speaks not only to the survivors of illness but also to anyone who has overcome any of life’s many difficulties: that is, everyone.

MATT FREEDMAN is an artist, writer and curator living in Queens, New York. For 12 years out of college he was a cartoonist; his strip “Free Associates” was published in The Onion, The Chicago Reader, and The Philadelphia City Paper. Freedman currently teaches in the graduate Fine Arts and Visual Studies programs at the University of Pennsylvania. He received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in sculpture and a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in fiction writing. He co-curated the nationally touring Paper Sculpture show that began at SculptureCenter in New York and the (B 19) exhibition at Long Island University. Recent solo shows in Brooklyn include those at Pierogi, FiveMyles, Big&Small/Casual, Valentine and Studio 10 galleries. The Devil Tricked Me, an exhibition based on this journal, ran at the Studio 10 gallery in Brooklyn from May 10–June 16, 2013. His writing has been published by Cabinet Magazine and The Pierogi Press. http://mattfreedman.org

During Matt Freedman’s solo exhibition with STUDIO10 The Devil Tricked Me, a limited number of the artist’s edition were made available. For more information on the artist’s edition please contact Annelie McGavin at (718) 852-4396.

STUDIO10 is located at 56 Bogart Street (the Morgan Avenue stop on the L train) in Bushwick. Gallery hours: Thursday through Sunday 1 - 6 pm or by appointment
Contact: studio10bogart@gmail.com (718) 852-4396 www.studio10bogart.com