“self portraits have provided compelling insight into the private lives and minds of painters and sculptors since the heady days of the renaissance.  the haunting eyes of rembrandt, the overwhelming ego of dUrer, and, later, the heartbreak of van gough - they’re all lasting symbols of the genre.  in this large scale exhibition of self portraits by artists currently living and working in la, matt aston steals the show with his dynamic ambitious piece.  entries from some talented up and comers testify to the form’s enduring saliency centuries after people stopped depicting god and started depicting themselves”  -  shana nys dambrot for flavorpill la. 11/12/04

On Madonna’s Drowned world tour

“then [bruce] rogers brought in matt aston to paint the entire set.  “his work has this distressed quality in all of his art-work which is what we wanted” rogers says “but he is also a very well known painter here in LA, so the walls are like giant matt Astons.”

entertainment design november 2001

“in many of his paintings, aston has managed to fuse the disparate influences of close and pollock in unique works that draw upon the seemingly random dripped and strewn color studies of pollock and the carefully constructed large-scale portraits of close.  from a distance, these portraits, usually composed on a large scale, are stunning likenesses - but a closer inspection reveals they are composed of deceptively random appearing doodles of paint.  his genius is clearly in reconciling a technique that seems unforced into a composition that is actually very carefully designed.”  -  jonathan gerald, citizen LA.

“los angeles painter Matt aston occupies a rather singular place within the figurative genre.  his portraits of anyone and everyone, from local indigents to his most affluent collectors, fulfill their function - they are recognizable and expressive.  but aston goes far beyond the conventions of realism, using a thick, gestural painting technique and florid color to create pieces with a dramatic formal quality related to abstract expressionism.”

shana nys dambrot for flavorpill la 9/14/04

“looks like chuck close on acid”  -  Don preston, keyboardist for frank zappa and the mothers of invention