Matt’s Gallery at Nine Elms
Matt’s Gallery, Nine Elms hard-hat tour, October 2021. Courtesy of Matt’s Gallery, London.
Matt’s Gallery has welcomed some of its trustees, supporters and stakeholders on the first of a series of hard-hat tours taking place over the next few weeks, as work begins on our brand new space in Nine Elms, south west London. The space is designed by architects Manalo & White and will comprise a double-height gallery, performance & events space, the Outset Archive, our offices, and a book & editions shop.
We’re delighted to announce that the space will open in spring 2022 with an exhibition from artists Lindsay Seers & Keith Sargent.
Please click here for more information about our move to Nine Elms and how you can support us.
Offsite Projects
Rebecca Lennon, THE KNOT COMMONS, Offsite at Southwark Park Galleries // Dilston Gallery, London, 15-31 October 2021. Performances Sun 31 October, 11am-5pm
Rebecca Lennon, THE KNOT COMMONS, 2021. Digital video still composite. Courtesy of the artist, Southwark Park Galleries and Matt’s Gallery, London.
THE KNOT COMMONS is a new large-scale poly-vocal three channel video and surround sound composition with performance by Rebecca Lennon. It is the annual collaborative commission by Southwark Park Galleries and Matt’s Gallery created especially for Dilston Gallery.
Originally planned for March 2020, the show was postponed, re-thought and re-designed over the successive national lockdowns. THE KNOT COMMONS became the second part in a series of works, following on from LIQUID i at Primary, Nottingham in 2020/2021, building on themes explored there. The exhibition expands a two-part spatial composition of vocal loops, textual knots, and imagery inhabiting / moving around two different repurposed civic architectures, a school and a deconsecrated church.
Join us for a day of performances on Sunday 31 October, 11am – 5pm. Free, no booking required, refreshments will be served throughout the day.
Phil Coy, Swete Brethe, Offsite at Nine Elms and online at mattsgallery.org, 21 October-28 November 2021. Launch event Thur 21 October, 6pm
Phil Coy, Satellite image with place markers, Nine Elms, London, 2021. Image courtesy of the artist.
Matt’s Gallery is pleased to present Swete Brethe, a site-specific installation and generative sonic work by Phil Coy.
Sited at the boundary line of the U.S. Embassy in Nine Elms, Wandsworth, the installation defines a square of land featuring a windsock and an anemometer, instruments for measuring wind speed and direction. The live wind speed data will be transmitted to mattsgallery.org where it sonically alters a trumpet solo composed especially for the project by virtuoso jazz musician Byron Wallen.
The commission is funded by Bellway, in agreement with Wandsworth Council as part of their Section 106 commitments. It is presented in partnership with London-based property developer and site owner, Dominvs Group, who have specially adapted the area in order to facilitate this temporary installation.
Please join us for the project launch on Thursday 21 October, 6pm at Nine Elms: United States Embassy (Stop D), London SW8 5DF. We will join the artist in opening the installation and will then be congregating for celebratory drinks at local neighbourhood bar, Darby’s.
MattFlix
Luke McCreadie, A foot full of no idea, Until 5.59pm 15 October 2021 at mattflix.video
Luke McCreadie, A foot full of no idea, 2021. Still from single channel HD video (animation), Duration: 06:47. Courtesy of the artist and Matt’s Gallery, London.
A foot full of no idea is a vessel presented as a series of severances, both a part and a whole, with a gooey centre which threatens to envelope all, an accidental fixation.
‘When I was a child I used to imagine that all objects were only tense on their surface because they were hollow and filled either with air like a balloon or liquid like a water balloon. I realise now that this relates to the way things seem solid and reliable when in fact most things are vessels or facades, a Potemkin village, inside which a green liquid of hysterical juice is concealed, waiting to spill.’
Rebecca Lennon, LIQUID i, 6pm 15 October-5.59pm 19 November 2021 at mattflix.video
Rebecca Lennon’s three-channel video work LIQUID i will be screening exclusively at mattflix.video from 5.59pm 15 October-6pm 19 November. The video forms part of the body of work LIQUID i the Knot Commons, currently being developed by Lennon with Matt’s Gallery and Southwark Park Galleries in London, and Primary, Nottingham.
Artists’ News
Mike Nelson, The House of the Farmer, Palazzo dell’Agricoltore, Parma, Until 12 June 2022
Mike Nelson, Mirror, 2021. Installation view of The House of the Farmer at Palazzo dell’Agricoltore, Parma, 2021. Courtesy of the artist, Franco Nero, Turin, neugerriemschneider, Berlin, 303 Gallery, NY, and Matt’s Gallery, London.
Palazzo dell’Agricoltore presents “The House of the Farmer”, a site-specific installation conceived by British artist Mike Nelson and curated by Didi Bozzini. The exhibition has its origin in the history of the building, reflecting on the political, economic and social role it has played over 82 years since its construction in 1939. The building history is reflected in its name — Palazzo dell’Agricoltore — and by the title of the exhibition, The House of the Farmer. The palace was the seat of the corporation that organised and facilitated agricultural activities under the Fascist government.
It occupies all its floors, drawing on the visceral and poetic power of the palace and the materials that inhabit its halls, taken from the wild landscape in the rural region surrounding the city; rocks, tree trunks, branches, and roots, and even the entire side of a hill has been moved inside the building as if part of its architecture. This way, Nelson leads you to imagine the building as a sculpture itself and attempts to provide a mental and material path between reflection and fantasy, between nature and culture.
Nathaniel Mellors, PERMANENT PRESENTS, Frac Bretagne, Rennes, Until 2 January 2022
In Nathaniel Mellors’ solo exhibition, PERMANENT PRESENTS, Frac Bretagne brings together for the first time the entire film series incorporating central Neanderthal figures produced by Mellors since 2012.
Films screening during the exhibition include The Sophisticated Neanderthal Interview (2012); Neanderthal Container (2014); and Neanderthal Crucifixion (2021). As a sort of prequel to the trilogy, the exhibition at Frac Bretagne looks back at Ourhouse (2010 – ) British TV drama being eaten from the inside out. It stages the eccentric Maddox-Wilson family’s lives destabilized when their house (‘Ourhouse’) is occupied by The Object (Brian Catling), whom the family fail to recognise as a human-being, each perceiving a different form in its place.
A catalogue published to accompany the exhibition will shortly be available from Matt’s Gallery. Please join our mailing list for updates.
Lucy Gunning, The Soft Prison, Museum of the Home, London, Until 28 November 2021
Lucy Gunning, Climbing Around My Room, 1993. Still from video. Courtesy of the artist and Matt’s Gallery, London.
Lucy Gunning’s 1993 video work Climbing Around My Room is currently on show as part of group exhibition The Soft Prison at Museum of the Home, London.
The Soft Prison brings together works by ten contemporary artists to explore the landscape of our private space and the home’s capacity to contain and sustain us.
It features intimate photographs, documentary, installations and filmed portraits by artists including Gunning, Rachel Whiteread, Gregor Schneider, Mona Hatoum, Richard Billingham, De’Anne Crooks, Donald Rodney and Clio Barnard.
Jordan Baseman, A Different Kind of Different, Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, Switzerland, 20-24 October 2021
Jordan Baseman, A Different Kind of Different, 2020. Still from digital video, Duration: 13:24. Courtesy of the artist and Matt’s Gallery, London.
The physical premiere of Jordan Baseman’s short animated film A Different Kind of Different will take place at Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival on 21 October 2021, as part of their programme of short animated films.
Jordan Baseman, A Different Kind of Different, Absurd Art House Film Festival 2021, The Criterion Blue Town, Sheerness, 23 October 2021
Jordan Baseman, A Different Kind of Different, 2020. Still from video, duration 13:00. Courtesy of the artist and Matt’s Gallery, London.
A Different Kind of Different will also be screened this month at Absurd Art House Film Festival (ABSURDAH), which will be held at the Criterion Music Hall Theatre, Blue Town, Sheerness on Saturday 23 October 2021.
2021 is the first ever year of ABSURDAH, which is organised and programmed by artists Lindsay Seers & Keith Sargent.
Mike Nelson, Vogliamo tutto, OGR Turin, Until 16 January 2022
Mike Nelson. Installation view of Vogliamo Tutto at OGR Turin, 2021, Image by: Andrea Rossetti. Courtesy of the artist, Franco Nero, Turin, neugerriemschneider, Berlin, 303 Gallery, NY, and Matt’s Gallery, London.
A group exhibition reflecting on the transformation of labor in the post-industrial and digital era, between awareness and disillusion, precariousness and empowerment, curated by Samuele Piazza with Nicola Ricciardi.
Fifty years after the publication of Vogliamo tutto – a novel by Nanni Balestrini about the struggles of the working class in 1969 Turin – does it still make sense to want it all?
The exhibition includes works by: Andrea Bowers, Pablo Bronstein, Claire Fontaine, Tyler Coburn, Jeremy Deller, Kevin Jerome Everson, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Elisa Giardina Papa, Liz Magic Laser, Adam Linder, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Mike Nelson, and Charlotte Posenenske.
Vogliamo tutto. An exhibition about labor: can we still want it all? Curated by Samuele Piazza with Nicola Ricciardi.
Jarosław Kozłowski, FLUXUS in Pills, Archive of Ideas, Poznań. Until 4 November 2021
Jarosław Kozłowski has curated exhibition FLUXUS in Pills at Archive of Ideas in Poznań, Poland, with coordination & project management from Natalia Brandt and Andżelika Jabłonska. The exhibition is open until 4 November 2021.
Benedict Drew in Documents of Contemporary Art: Magic, published September 2021
Benedict Drew is one of the artists surveyed in the recently published Documents of Contemporary Art: Magic, edited by Jamie Sutcliffe. It is published as part of the Documents of Contemporary Art series of anthologies which collect writing on major themes and ideas in contemporary art.
From the hexing of presidents to a renewed interest in herbalism and atavistic forms of self-care, magic has furnished the contemporary imagination with mysterious and often disorienting bodies of arcane thought and practice. This volume brings together writings by artists, magicians, historians and theorists, that illuminate the vibrant correspondences animating contemporary art’s varied encounters with magical culture, inspiring a reconsideration of the relationship between the symbolic and the pragmatic.
Click here for full list of contributors and to purchase.
Michael Curran, The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark now available to purchase at mattsgallery.org
Michael Curran, The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark album cover, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.
This month marks the 60th anniversary of the publication date for Muriel Spark’s 1961 novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The book brought Spark international acclaim and is considered one of the finest works of English-language fiction from the 20th century.
Now available to purchase from our website, Michael Curran’s 2018 album The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark was made on the centenary year of Spark’s birth as part of his tribute to the author: the participatory exhibition THE PUBLIC IMAGE – Scottish Lady Tiger at Generator Projects, Dundee.
The LP is available for £20 plus P+P. Click here for more information and to purchase.
Mike Nelson, Summer Exhibition 2021, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Until 2 January 2022
Mike Nelson, Amnesic Beach Fire (MoD II), 2021. Installation view. Courtesy of the artist, neugerriemschneider, Berlin, Franco Nero, Turin, 303 Gallery, NY, and Matt’s Gallery, London.
A new work by Mike Nelson, Amnesiac Beach Fire (MoD II) (2021), is currently on view in this year’s RA Summer Exhibition alongside over 1,300 works selected by coordinator Yinka Shonibare and a panel of artists, under the theme of ‘Reclaiming Magic’.
Held every year without fail, the Summer Exhibition is a celebration of contemporary art and architecture. Anyone can enter their work – leading artists, household names, new and emerging talent – and it provides a platform for the artistic community to showcase what they’re doing.
Jordan Baseman Fabula wins Best Experimental Film at Oregon Independent Film Festival 2021
Jordan Baseman, Fabula, 2020, production still. Digital video, Duration: 5:20. Courtesy of the artist and Matt’s Gallery, London.
Congratulations to artist Jordan Baseman, who was awarded Best Experimental Film at this year’s iteration of the Oregon Independent Film Festival.
Narrated by the Harvard Medical School Dream Researcher, Dr. Deirdre Barrett, Fabula is an experimental film that asks questions about our dreams and dream experiences during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020.
Fabula muses on our relationships with ourselves, one another, our environments and the meanings of our dreams while living with Covid-19. Filmed in Lockdown is a series of new works of literary, musical, visual, and performance arts, commissioned for Culture in Quarantine by Arts Council England & BBC Arts. Click here for more information on the programme.
Jordan Baseman in The Happy Hypocrite Issue 12 – Without Reduction, published September 2021
‘I stole The Happy Hypocrite’s title.
Welcome to Without Reduction, the twelfth and final issue of The Happy Hypocrite. I also stole the theme of this issue. From a book I saw in a used bookstore in New Haven, propped up beside a copy of HH issue 1. That book was Quantum Theory Without Reduction edited by Marcello Cini and Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond. I’ve chosen my editorial methodology, Without Reduction, because I’m greedy – this issue has more contributions than ever before. […] Can I say with certainty I now have a stable definition of the term experimental art writing? Well can I? No, I cannot. HH has consistently resisted such a demand to anthologise. HH is a symptom.’
– Maria Fusco
Artist Jordan Baseman is a contributor to Without Reduction, alongside Maria Fusco; Mohamed Abdelkarim; Andreia Afonso; Leila Al-Yousuf; Alison Ballance; Ohad Ben Shimon; Claire Biddles, Nastya Nikolskaya and Mathew Wayne Parkin; Oisin Byrne; Julia Calver; Anna Chapman Parker; Holly Corfield Carr; Jesse Darling; Daphne de Sonneville; Seán Elder; Seb Emina; Tim Etchells; Carl Gent; Dale Holmes; Adrien Howard and K Patrick; Agnė Jokšė; Sophie Jung; Sumaya Kassim; Rebecca La Marre; Amy Lam; Mohamedali Ltaief; Robert Herbert McClean; Chris McCormack; Susana Medina and Roc Sandford; Joseph Noonan-Ganley; Jaakko Pallasvuo; Joanna Walsh; Siân Williams and Kelly Best.
Click here for more information and to purchase.
Graham Fagen, New Symphony of Time, Mississippi Museum of Art, Mississippi, USA, Until September 2021
Graham Fagen, The Slave’s Lament, 2015, video still. Image courtesy of the artist and Matt’s Gallery, London.New Symphony of Time expands the boundaries of Mississippi’s identity, casting light on a shared past to help reflect an expansive, more inclusive future. This ongoing exhibition features a single screen version of Graham Fagen’s, Slave’s Lament amongst other contemporary pieces such as Benny Andrews’ Mississippi River Bank and Jeffrey Gibson’s Sharecropper, pieced quilts, historical paintings, and self-taught artwork, which provide an alternate lens from which to consider the significant creative contributions of the state of Mississippi and its place as part of a broader, American narrative.
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