Chad Alexander Matha: Carving a Forest
May 20–July 5, 2026

The work in “Carving a Forest” continues the productive trajectory introduced in Everything to Build With at the Museum of Wisconsin Art DTN. The conceptual momentum of that exhibition inspired Chad Alexander Matha to further reconsider his relationship to collected objects, the process of “drawing” with them, and the ways that looking, gathering, and arranging them into frameworks of artistic identity—as metaphor, and in some cases, as literal framework-based objects.

“Carving a Forest” playfully captures the intractable relationship between creator, creation, and the name of the thing itself; all of it operating simultaneously to build and to be built, as consciousness and understanding move their way through a forest of signs toward meaning. Throughout the exhibition, collected materials function as both physical structures and conceptual markers, reflecting Matha’s ongoing interest in how objects accumulate significance through context, perception, and use.

The work ultimately suggests that understanding is never fixed. By the time meaning is arrived at and named, it has already shifted into something else entirely—a forest for its trees.

Chad Alexander Matha (b. 1998) is an artist and designer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He earned a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design with an emphasis on sculpture, textiles, and soft-goods design. He is a recipient of the 2024 International Outstanding Student Sculptor Award (ISC), the 2024 Gener8tor Art x Sherman Phoenix grant, a 2023 artist-in-residence at Yale Norfolk School of Art, and a 2018/19 artist-in-residence at Redline Milwaukee. He recently completed a year-long residency with Plum Blossom Initiative's Bridgework 10 cohort and currently has a solo exhibition with the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA|DTN).