March 2009

Final rehearsal for Golden Space City of God, a large-scale video and choral music installation by Richard Grayson, co-commissioned by Matt’s Gallery and Artpace, Texas, will be showing at Matt’s Gallery 13 May-28 June 2009. (Image by Suzanne Treister)

David Osbaldeston Your Answer is Mine, 2006 (installation view), originally commissioned for Matt’s Gallery will be showing at the Bluecoat, Liverpool 6 March-10 May 2009.

Willie Doherty Ghost Story 2007 (video still) will be shown at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh as part of a major exhibition of the artist’s work 25 April-12 July.

Next Exhibition at Matt’s Gallery

Matt’s Gallery’s next exhibition will be The Golden Space City of God by Richard Grayson. Co-commissioned by Matt’s Gallery, London and Artpace, San Antonio, Texas, The Golden Space City of God is a large-scale video and choral music installation based on web-sourced predictions of war, computers, banking, robotics and the end of the world. The video projection features the first choral performance of a new work by British composer Leo Chadburn, based on a libretto written by the artist. The Golden Space City of God will be showing from 13 May-28 June at Matt’s Gallery.

Richard Grayson, work in progress for exhibition of The Golden Space City of God, in San Antonio Texas where the work is currently being created. (Image by Suzanne Treister)

Make an Icon out of Popcorn with Maria Fusco

Maria Fusco has devised a project Make an Icon out of Popcorn, which will be a one day event held at ArtQuartersPress, London on 27 March. The day will consist of a series of short workshops where participants will work through a selection of Paul Thek’s teaching notes for a four dimensional design class taught at Cooper Union, New York.

Maria has invited six lecturers to participate in the project, asking each to invite one of their students. Together they will make responses in 2D, 3D and 4D to questions asked in the teaching notes. Collaborating with two designers from A Practice for Everyday Life, Emma Thomas and Kirsty Carter, the material created will be worked into a book, which will be printed and produced at the end of the day.

Artists exhibitions, projects, awards and events

Here are some highlights for March and April 2009:

With awards from Visiting Arts and Creative Collaborations, Anne Bean will be working with Iraqi Kurdish artist Poshya Kakl, Croatian artist Vlasta Delimar, Israeli artist Efi Ben-David and Irish artist Sinead O’Donnell towards performance works to subsequently take place in each artist’s country.

Origins a film by Anne Bean, commissioned by Channel 4, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Wellcome Trust will be showing alongside the Darwin exhibition at the Natural History Museum. The video can be also seen online at the Darwin Originals website.

Anne Bean, Origins (video still), 2009 can be seen online at the Darwin Originals website

Anne Bean will also be showing work at Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne in the exhibition Notes on a Return where residual fragments from performances at the gallery during 1985-1987 and will be traced and re-exhibited. Audio and archival installations will be presented from 18 April-30 August 2009.

Anne Bean, (image from Laing Art Gallery in 1987), will be shown as part of Notes on a Return showing at the Laign Gallery from 18 April-30 August 2009

Michael Curran is participating in Jeugdzonde (Youthful Sin) at LLS 387 Ruimte voor actuele Kunst in Antwerp from 19 March-30 May. The exhibition comprises a collection of works by known visual artists which are not part of the artists‘ official oeuvres.

Michael Curran, work for Jeugdzonde (Youthful Sin) showing at LLS 387 Ruimte voor actuele Kunst, Antwerp from 19 March-30 May 2009

Michael Curran will contribute to the next edition of Gagarin, the journal of artists’ writings, co-ordinated by Wilfried Huet, with a text entitled Open Page.

Roy Voss will be showing work in an exhibition entitled Collaborators at Room, London from 25 March-19 April and also in Shunt at Cluster Gallery, Berlin from 8 April 2009.

David Osbaldeston will be showing Your Answer is Mine, originally commissioned by Matt’s Gallery in 2006, at the Bluecoat, Liverpool as part of 4 x 4 a series of four exhibitions in four galleries running from 6 March until 10 May 2009.

A major exhibition of films and photographs by Willie Doherty will be shown at The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh from 25 April-12 July 2009. Ghost Story has also recently been purchased by the Tate.

An exhibition of portraits by Graham Fagen entitled somebodyelse, will be shown at The Changing Room, Stirling from 14 February-11 April 2009. The exhibition includes a new commission and work exhibited for the first time in Scotland.

Graham Fagen will be showing an exhibition of portraits entitled somebodyelse at The Changing Room, Stirling, 14 February-11 April 2009

I Murder Hate a new music commission by Graham Fagen and Adrian Sherwood will be performed live at Tolbooth, Stirling as part of The Blend Festival on Saturday 14th March.

Graham Fagen I Murder Hate, a new music commission performed as part of The Blend Festival 14 March 2009

Jordan Baseman’s solo exhibition Dark is the Night, comprising new work created in and around Soho throughout 2008/09, showing at Artsway until 5 April, will then tour to The Photographers’ Gallery, London where it will show from 23 April-13 June 2009. A publication will accompany the exhibition.

Jordan Baseman’s exhibition Dark is the Night can be seen at The Photographers’ Gallery from 23 April-13 June 2009

John Frankland will be showing work at The Russian Club Gallery, London in a joint show with Elizabeth Magill from 26 March-6 May 2009.

A solo show of Nathaniel Mellors‘ work entitled Giantbum can be seen from 17 April-16 May at Lombard-Freid Projects, New York.

Nathaniel Mellors, Giantbum, 2009 (video still)

Paul Rooney will take part in Existential Territories (2008-2009) a series of six, monthly events focusing on artists’ writings, readings discussion and debate organised by Jeremy Akerman and Gavin Everall. On 21 April Paul Rooney will present a performance of the work Letters That Rot into Mulch, 2008, with actor David Thorpe at Toynbee Studios.

Paul Rooney‘s work can also be seen in the group exhibition At Your Service at The David Roberts Art Foundation, London from 17 April-28 June 2009, and also at Trying to Cope with Things that aren’t Human (Part One) from 28 March-2 May 2009 at AirSpace Gallery, Stoke on Trent.

Publications and Editions

Fiona Crisp Norwegian series #3, 2005 (detail)

Matt’s Gallery will be publishing a new monograph on the work of Fiona Crisp in June 2009. Hyper Passive surveys the visual, conceptual and philosophical aspects of Fiona Crisp’s large-scale photographic work over the past decade, and places it in the wider historical context of art and photography.

Staff News

Carolyn Thompson, Matt’s Gallery Website Administrator, has been commissioned to produce a sound piece for Bury Art Gallery and Museum. The piece will be shown as part of The Text Festival from 2 May-12 September 2009.

Clare Fitzpatrick, Matt’s Gallery Projects Manager, has recently given birth to a baby girl. Whilst Clare is away on maternity leave, Frances Scott will be dealing with her work.

Continuing Exhibitions

The following exhibitions and events were featured in the January-February News page but are still running throughout March-April:

By appointment only, a year long exhibition by David Osbaldeston will be showing at Matt’s Gallery (Office) from 1 October 2008 to 30 September 2009. To arrange a weekday viewing please call 07541 313941 or visit the Matt’s Gallery (Office) website for further information.

Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009 will include works by Mike Nelson, Nathaniel Mellors and Lindsay Seers. The exhibition opens on 3 February and will continue to 26 April 2009 at Tate Britain.

Paul Rooney’s work will showcase in Perhaps Nothing, Perhaps Something at Leeds Met Gallery from 27 February until 4 April 2009.

Jordan Baseman‘s solo exhibition Dark is the Night consisting of new work made in and around Soho during 2008/09, jointly commissioned by Artsway and The Photographers’ Gallery, London will be shown at Artsway from 21 February-5 April 2009.