Matalyn Zundel, “HB,” 2023, oil on canvas, 21×23 in.

“I am not interested in a posed model on a set, rather in how the lives women live every day intersect and interact with the lives around them,” says Salt Lake City artist Matalyn Zundel. “The figures in my paintings are all engaged in a relationship of some kind. They exist in tandem with one another, with me and with their observers. What does it feel like to be in a relationship and to be a woman? What does it feel like to observe those relationships? What does it feel like to be observed?”

Zundel graduated from the University of Utah and now works out of the Poor Yorick Studios in South Salt Lake. She likes to work in oil paint for its texture and for its forgiveness. “Oil paint can change its mind halfway through a painting and be something different by the end of the work,” she says. “It can be buried and erased under a new layer that is thicker and louder. It is multifaceted and complex.” On her canvases she often leaves portions unpainted. “The lines that remain are a curated remnant of the poor choices that came before,” she says. “I want to remind my viewer that what they are observing is a painting of a human woman, created by a human woman.”

READ MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST AND VIEW MORE OF HER WORK

Artists of Utah’s 35×35, Finch Lane Gallery, Salt Lake City, through Feb. 23

15 Bytes

UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.