Matthew J. Sacks, 1952 — 2024

Matt Sacks, the enigmatic artist, gallerist, and community builder based in Fort Worth, died on Sunday, November 17, 2024.

Mark Penland, “Portrait of Matt Sacks,” early 2000s

Best known for his house gallery turned nonprofit, The Grackle Art Gallery, Mr. Sacks played an integral role in supporting the artistic community in Fort Worth. Since opening his home as a venue in 2010, the gallery has shown hundreds of artists and hosted countless musicians. Many local artists (including myself) point to The Grackle as the first gallery to showcase their work, and often, it was where everyone ended up after a day of gallery hopping as part of the Fort Worth Art Dealer’s Association’s Fall or Spring Gallery Night.

Matt Sacks at The Grackle, August 2024. Photo: Jessica Waffles

Despite his ability to foster community, Mr. Sacks remained a mystery to many. Fort Worth artist and art educator Adam Werner summed it up succinctly, noting, “I remember when I couldn’t figure out if he was actually enrolled in Painting or just hanging around the studio. I couldn’t tell if he was actually turning in a stolen government warning sign as his assignment or just being funny. I couldn’t ever tell if he was actually inviting me to show work at the next exhibition or just making some kind of dry joke. What I know for sure is that I can’t think of a single person who even comes close to connecting as many people who loved art and music in the city as Matt Sacks did.”

Mr. Sacks had a way of always keeping people on their toes, and it’s possible that his sometimes cryptic nature, and his desire for community, might be explained by the little-known history of his life. 

Matthew J. Sacks was born on April 16, 1952, in Kansas City, Missouri to parents Martin and Frances Sacks. Mr. Sacks’ father, a Yale- and Columbia-educated lawyer serving as regional attorney for the 17th District in Kansas City, died in 1967 when Matt was just 15 years old. Both of his parents were veterans, having served in WWII, and devout members of the Unitarian Church. Frances was also a thespian, an interest that Matt shared. In high school, Mr. Sacks played drums in the school band, was a member of the wrestling team, and was voted “Most Talented.”

Matt Sacks pictured in his high school yearbook, 1967

In 1974, Mr. Sacks moved to Fort Worth with Nancy Renick, a fellow artist, thespian, and costume designer, who would later become his wife. During his first years in Fort Worth, Mr. Sacks was enamored with the wrestling scene and dabbled in theatrical performances at Scott Theater and the Dan Danciger Jewish Community Center. 

Matt Sacks in a Fort Worth Star Telegram newspaper clipping, September 1975

In 1977, Mr. Sacks and Ms. Renick purchased the home at 4621 El Campo Avenue, which would eventually become The Grackle. That same year, Mr. Sacks’ mother died, but the couple had support from Mr. Sacks’ closest family members, his aunt Ruth Sacks, a screenwriter and philanthropist, and her husband Mortimer Caplain, a lawyer and educator who served as U.S. Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service in the early 1960s.

Matt Sacks headshots, c. 1977

In 1980, Mr. Sacks and Ms. Renick married and early in that decade Mr. Sacks pursued a degree at the University of Texas at Arlington UTA. During this time he worked with Andy Anderson, a filmmaker and professor at the university, and appeared in Mr. Anderson’s films Interface (1984) and Positive I.D. (1986).

Matt Sacks in “Interface,” directed by Andy Anderson, 1984

There is a lot that is unknown about Mr. Sacks’ life during the 1980s and 1990s. Paul Leicht, a longtime friend and co-founder of The Grackle told Glasstire, “Matt was an elusive figure, kind of on purpose too. He liked to create a little bit of chaos in people’s perceptions.”

What is clear is that Mr. Sacks attended UTA and took classes at Tarrant County College (TCC) for a number of years. It seemed he was a perpetual student. He was taking classes at TCC in the early 2000s and bonded with senior photography lecturer René West. When Ms. West took a full professorship position at UTA, Mr. Sacks followed her. Fellow artists who knew him through the college scene (both professors and students) noted that he was always in the studio. Even after he completed a BFA with a concentration in Photography from UTA around 2005, Mr. Sacks continued to take photography and other art courses at TCC for much of his life. Mr. Leicht recalled that though some students seemed annoyed that Mr. Sacks was always around, it meant that he was also always willing to help out and show up for people. Wherever he was, it seemed he was cultivating community.

Dominick Mastrangelo, Elizabeth Mellott, Loli Kantor, and Matt Sacks at Jazz Cafe. September 2002. Photo courtesy of Loli Kantor

In the early 2000s he was part of f.8 collective, a photography group originally founded by Christopher Blay but headed by Loli Kantor at the time. Mr. Blay told Glasstire, “f8 came from a desire to create something that didn’t exist in Fort Worth in a formal way. We were young photographers who didn’t have galleries and we wanted to make a space of our own.” The collective showed work locally at the Jazz Cafe, Artspace111, and SOHO Gallery. 

Matt Sacks, “Broken Reflection Grain Elevator,” 2002

In a 2002 artist statement, Mr. Sacks said this of photography: “Some people don’t think photography is art, which is untrue. We catch the art of life as it happens in contrast to the sometimes convenient memory of other mediums, we shoot what we see and stay by its immediacy. That timeliness provides the energy that places our work at the forefront of honest expression.”

When he was a child, Mr. Sacks received a camera as a gift from his grandparents, which sparked his longtime love of photography. Over the years, his artistic practice was varied — he dabbled in painting, sculpture, graffiti, poetry, and one could argue that he was always in a performative state. The connective tissue among his work was a focus on the mundane and the ordinary, with a political undertone that was fervently anti-establishment. 

In a 2000 interview in The OLDSCHOOL, a local punk zine by artist and The Grackle co-founder Billy Hayes, Mr. Sacks speaks about graffiti. He told Mr. Hayes, “…it’s kind of a thing that conventional America wants to suppress. And for the very reason that it wants it to be suppressed, I want it to be shown… Graffiti, it has messages, especially political messages…”

Matt Sacks, “Waiting for the Bus”

This early interview foreshadowed an event that transpired around 2016. From 2014 to 2016, Mr. Sacks engaged in a playful graffiti project called Waiting for the Bus. At various bus stops around the city, he scribbled the phrase, which, like many things in Mr. Sacks’ life, had layers of meanings. “Waiting for the Bus” can be seen as a critique of the city’s notoriously inadequate transit system that slowed the pace of many who relied on it, often lower-income residents without other means of transportation. More broadly the phrase also speaks to the larger concept that as we live our lives, we are all waiting for the inevitable end. Mr. Sacks documented the Waiting for the Bus graffiti through his photography, and ultimately was arrested and fined for the project.

Matt Sacks building a large-scale installation at Firehouse Gallery, c. 2008. Photo courtesy of Billy and Marisa Hayes.

Mr. Sacks’ sculptures ranged from large-scale site-specific installations to more intimate works, but all included discarded materials such as plastic crates, found wood, and metal scraps. He often gathered materials from the junkyard or drove around and picked up “trash” off of neighborhood curbs. Mr. Hayes spoke about going with Mr. Sacks to gather these materials, some finds would make their way to eBay, like the stack of 1970s Robert Crumb comic books, some metal scraps would be taken to the recycling center, and the rest would wind up as art materials. Mr. Sacks’ sculptures were sometimes presented inside The Grackle, but more often than not lived in the backyard as part of a makeshift sculpture garden.

Matt Sacks, “Kick Line,” 2002. Courtesy of Paul Leicht

Nancy and Matt Sacks at Artspace111, 2002. Photo courtesy of Billy and Marisa Hayes

Though The Grackle was not founded until 2010, ten years prior, Mr. and Mrs. Sacks held an art party at their home that would serve as a precursor of what was to come. The event was more of a party than an exhibition, but featured some works by Mr. Sacks and from his father’s art collection. The potato-print flier kept with the general aesthetic of Mr. Sacks’ work — rough around the edges and concise. 

Matt and Nancy Sacks art party flier, 2000. Image courtesy of Billy and Marisa Hayes

Matt Sacks and Billy Hayes at F6 Gallery in front of their work, 2008. Photo courtesy of Billy and Marisa Hayes

In the late ‘00s, several events culminated leading to the establishment of The Grackle. In 2007, Mr. Sacks was devastated by the death of his beloved wife. On the heels of that loss, the previously fruitful local art scene saw closures of spaces and the end of collectives such as the F6 Collective, which hosted art shows in a warehouse in Arlington, and Metrognome, which at that time was operating out of the Firehouse Gallery in East Fort Worth. Mr. Sacks sought to build community when things were seemingly falling apart. 

In 2010, Mr. Hayes, Mr. Leicht, and Mr. Sacks launched The Grackle Art Gallery, with the intention of hosting monthly exhibitions in the Spring and Fall. As Mr. Sacks was always a champion of the underdog and unwanted, he felt a kinship with the common grackle, which is abundant in North Texas and often seen as a nuisance. Prior to the gallery opening, he jokingly took on the persona of “Grackle Matt” when talking to Mr. Hayes, who went by the artist’s pen name ChickenBilly. The name was shortened for the gallery, and though it doesn’t appear on the first flier, an outline of a grackle is the main visual element.

The Grackle Art Gallery’s first exhibition flier, 2010

The artists showcased at The Grackle were local and emerging. Many of them were students that the co-founders encountered at TCC and others were artists who had been involved in collectives throughout the ‘00s. The shows were often on view for only one night, which set a sense of urgency — everyone showed up because if they didn’t they would miss it. People gathered on the front porch, throughout the house in the rooms-turned-galleries, in the kitchen/laundry room where musical acts performed, and in the inviting backyard English garden that Mr. and Mrs. Sacks cultivated long ago. 

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

Events at The Grackle, 2010-2014. Photo: Matt Sacks

The visual art on the walls is what brought people to the space, but the unfolding conversations, building of community, and music in the air is what kept them there into the wee hours of the morning. In the early years, local musician Clint Niosi often played, though he also brought in and scheduled other acts.

Mr. Niosi served as the Music Director of the space until around 2017. He told Glasstire that in the beginning, as a singer/songwriter, he often played the art shows, but as the space progressed he began bringing in other musicians. He said, “The vision evolved over time. I remember this night when a band called Hundreds played — it was the loudest thing I had ever heard in the space, it was earth-shatteringly loud. I thought, ‘This is going to get shut down,’ but Matt had a huge smile on his face the whole time. He couldn’t believe that it was happening. After that he was like, ‘You showed me what we could do here.’ He saw that it really could be a music venue and I don’t think he saw it that way until that point.”

Over the last 14 years, The Grackle’s leadership has shifted and its programming has expanded to balance visual art exhibitions and music events. In 2018, the organization received its nonprofit status. Kävin Allenson, a co-director of The Grackle, told Glasstire, “We plan to continue Matt’s vision of providing art and music here for people who want to come and gather. He’s always been a facilitator and lots of collaborations and relationships have formed here at The Grackle.”

Matt Sacks. Photo: Paul Leicht

As news of Mr. Sacks’ death was announced via social media, hundreds of artists commented about his kindness, support, and generosity over the years. Many stated that they got their start exhibiting his gallery and that the space provided a much needed connection. Frequenters to The Grackle only knew this part of Mr. Sacks — an artist who made rough works and had a sometimes brisk or difficult to comprehend demeanor, but nevertheless opened his home often to the community. 

For over a decade Mr. Sacks was a regular attendee at The Dock Bookshop’s weekly open mic nights. Following Mr. Sacks’ death, The Dock posted a remembrance of him via social media, stating, “This one hits hard… Matt was a dear friend, a wonderful soul full of humor… and supported and encouraged many artists. He will be greatly missed!”

Stephonia Roberts and Matt Sacks at The Dock Bookshop

Stephonia Roberta, community activist, author, and herbalist, told Glasstire, “Matt  Sacks was a soul who had a quick wit to engage your mind. His love of creativity extended from grocery carts in trees to the beauty of bees buzzing in the garden. Matt was a friend to us for many reasons.”

Mr. Sacks was a multifaceted person with a winding history and boundless interests and experiences many of us who knew him were never privy to. Because of this, he has touched many lives and his memory will live on in the hearts of artists, musicians, writers, actors, and other creatives who have or do call Fort Worth home.

Matt Sacks died on Sunday, November 17, following a two year cancer diagnosis. A celebration of life will be held  at 4621 El Campo on Sunday, December 1, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event will have a loose open mic format, in which musicians are invited to play and friends can share their memories of Mr. Sacks.