As an artist I disrupt the notions of madness, privilege, and confinement.
Through lived experiences I have come to question the models of "mental health" we have been given. Instead I look to madness as a fertile place to examine human experiences, linguistics, and meaning making.
Utilizing drawing, painting, printmaking, poetry, performance, sculpture, and experimental forms I create artworks which ask us to consider alternatives to the stigmas of society.
In each artwork I dive into expressions of my experiences and use them to navigate new ways of presenting complex conversations, asking my audience to engage in their own psychology.
Poetry
Performance Art
The Center for Mad Culture is a nonprofit space in Chicago dedicated to advancing madness as a cultural identity rather than a clinical label. It brings together exhibitions, workshops, publications, and public programs that explore the history, language, and creative force of mad experience.
I created the Center to address what was missing when I was coming to understand my own relationship to madness. There were few spaces that allowed for expression without reduction or correction. The Center exists to build that space now. It supports artists, writers, and community members in shaping their own narratives, expanding cultural representation, and engaging in collective advocacy.
THE CENTER FOR MAD CULTURE
A CULTURAL LEADER
I work as both an artist and cultural organizer, building spaces and conversations around madness as a lived and cultural experience. My practice spans painting, writing, and public programming, with a focus on how madness shapes aesthetics, history, and language. Through lectures, workshops, and presentations, I engage audiences in discussions on mad aesthetics, mad cultural history, mad poetics, and related topics, offering new ways to think about perception, creativity, and expression.
I am available for speaking engagements, classes, and collaborative programs. If you are looking to bring these conversations into your institution or community, I welcome the opportunity to work together. Please use the contact form below to book speaking opportunities..
MAD AESTHETICS
Explores how experiences of madness shape visual language, form, and artistic process. This topic looks at how perception, mark-making, and composition shift when they are not bound by dominant expectations of clarity or control.
MAD POETICS
Focuses on forms of language that emerge from mad experience. This includes fragmentation, repetition, and non-linear structures that challenge conventional ideas of coherence and meaning.
MAD CULTURAL HISTORY
Examines how madness has been understood and represented across time. It considers shifts from communal and spiritual frameworks to institutional and medical models, and how these histories continue to shape present-day attitudes.
MAD CULTURE
Considers how shared spaces, programs, and collective practices can support mad expression. It focuses on building community that values lived experience without reducing it to diagnosis or treatment.
Mad Tea is a podcast hosted by Matt Bodett that explores madness as a cultural, historical, and lived experience. Through conversations, research, and storytelling, it brings forward voices, texts, and ideas often left out of dominant narratives. The podcast creates space for mad ways of thinking, speaking, and relating to remain present without being reduced, contributing to a broader and more self-defined mad culture.
CONTACT ME
I am currently accepting commissions.
If this is why you are contacting me please be specific about your budget, what size, and what time frame you are considering.
Studio visits are encouraged!
Please stop by and see me, but when contacting me please offer a few dates of availability so I can find something that works around my schedule as well.
STUDIO:
410 S Michigan Ave Suites 419-420
Chicago IL 60605
Open by appointment
email:
matt@mattbodett.com