KALEID Gallery is proud to present two new feature exhibitions by gallery resident artists Matty Heimgartner, and Rose Margaret for the month of March.

"Things Unsaid” by Matty Heimgartner

"Things Unsaid" is a visual narrative about the anxieties that we suppress by overconsumption of alcohol and drugs. It is a nostalgic tribute to the life that I lived, with watercolor and ink illustrations capturing feelings that I had and scenarios that I saw. Each painting is its own story, but together, they represent a lifestyle. Things Unsaid is a combination of biographical and autobiographical scenarios and situations, with hand-written text inside the paintings to speak the words that my anxious mind could not.

I started taking party drugs at eighteen years old and became dependent on alcohol at nineteen. Anytime that I had to deal with something even remotely stressful, I would drink until I no longer cared, or more so, remembered. Getting kicked out of my childhood home, flunking out of college, break-ups and identity struggles were some of the heavier triggers that I was eager to forget. It got to the point that some of my friends knew I would not remember the night before, so they would call or text me with a recap. At twenty-two, I recognized that I had a problem. I quit drinking for nearly three months, but as I felt “healed,” I resumed drinking. By twenty-three, it was out of control again. One week after my twenty-sixth birthday, I realized that no one could help me but myself. My body has been alcohol-free since May 2017. Every day is a new page, but for now, I am enjoying the chapter that I am in.

Matty Heimgartner is a twenty-seven-year-old San Jose native with undergraduate degrees in English and Art. For many years, Matty considered himself a writer who also enjoyed drawing. In 2017, that changed. He held his first solo Art show as a student at San Jose State University. His show, The Life of Antinda, featured eight one-page short stories and seven related illustrations about a character that he has been developing since he was seven years old. Since then, four of Matty’s short stories have been published with Defiant Scribe Literary Magazine and he has shown his artwork in San Jose and Oakland. Matty has been a resident Artist at KALEID Gallery since February 2018 and is currently extending The Life of Antinda into a full-length novel.

“Pollinators” by Rose Margaret

I pay tribute to the Earthlings that keep us in balance—the beings who pollinate food, ideas, and abundance.
May these artworks be a prayer for us to re-unify our fragmented ecosystem.
May we act in Truth, and bloom. ~Rose Margaret

Join us for the artists' receptions on First Friday March 1st 7pm–11pm featuring live music by Mariposa, and Ian-Carl. Free and all ages. Part of the South FIRST FRIDAYS ArtWalkSJ.

KALEID Gallery
88 S. 4th St.
downtown San Jose
Free street parking after 6pm, $5 parking in the garage above the gallery.