John Frankland untitled work for (BACKSPACE), 1999
John Frankland untitled work for (BACKSPACE), 1999
John Frankland untitled work for (BACKSPACE), 1999
1999 is the Twentieth anniversary year of the opening of Matt’s Gallery. This is an exceptional time for the gallery and to celebrate its continued commitment to commissioning new work from artists specifically for it’s spaces the gallery is mounting an archive exhibition with a difference, simultaneously look back in to it’s past and forward into the twentieth year and beyond.
Simultaneously using all the gallery’s spaces BACKSPACE provides a unique opportunity for visitors to investigate the gallery’s history, philosophy and artists in depth. The exhibition will present archival objects and documents, film and video of exhibitions and their making, slide projections, audio and text on twenty years of producing new work with 44 artists including David Troostwyk, Joel Fisher, Jaroslaw Kozolowski, Robin Klassnik & tom Clark, Susan Hiller, Jeff Instone, Michael Porter, John Blake, Tony Bevan, Tomasz Osinski, Robert Janz, Amikam Toren, Gerald Newman, Avis Newman, Nat Goodden, sue Arrowsmith, Ian Mckeever, Nan Hoover, Gerard Hemsworth, Anthony Wilson, Imants Tillers, Rose finn-Kelcey, Richard Wilson, Ian Breakwell, Hanna Luczak, Hannah colloins, Brian Catling, Kate Smith, Jimmie Durham. Edgar Heap of Birds, Melanie Counsil, Willie Doherty, Thomas Holley, Mel Jackson, Matthew Tickle, Mike Nelson, John Frankland, Xenia K. Dieroff, Lucy Gunning, Sean Dower, Juan Cruz, Graham Fagen. The presentations will provide the exhibition with a formal structure but all elements will be open to change – the films being shown, the slides for projection, the objects on display-creating a fluid, dynamic process of sampling the past that will stimulate the viewer to return again and again.
Going beyond more standard documentary methods, the presentation of the historical material in BACKSPACE will be fused with artworks, both interspersed within the archival display and presented under gallery conditions. One of Matt’s Gallery’s two gallery spaces will be kept for the presentation of new work throughout the duration of BACKSPACE, presenting a programme of new art which will change weekly and feature numerous artists associated with the gallery. There will also be documentary presentations on the alternative space established by the Polish artist Jaroslaw Kozolowski in Poznan, Galerie Akumulatory 2, which was the instrumental influence in the establishment of Matt’s Gallery.
The archival process will be active during the exhibition, with new material being added to the displays as it is uncovers. This physical process, and the critical debates generated by the exhibition, will form the backbone of the production of material for a publication investigating twenty years of Matt’s Gallery and the hopes to publish ion 1999.
BACKSPACE promises to be a unique experience, mixing opportunities to view the history of the gallery, to experience the hidden workings of the gallery and of artists, see both new work and work from the past and participate in the critical debate on the role of galleries and the changing nature of contemporary art.
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Biography
Born Rochdale, Lancashire 1961, Lives and works in London. Studied 1979
Rochdale College of Art (Foundation) 1980/3 Goldsmiths College (BA Hons) Selected
Solo Exhibitions 2006 Peer, Peer Gallery, London 2005
Brown Works, Matt's Gallery, London 2001
Untitled Boulder, Compton Verney House Trust, Warwick 2000
Untitled (Disaster), Project Art Centre, Dublin 1999
BACKSPACE Matt’s Gallery, London; You Can’t Touch This,
Arnolfini, Bristol 1998 Lokaal 01,
Antwerp 1997 Nothing Matters, Royal
Festival Hall, London 1996 what you lookin’
at?, Matt’s Gallery, London 1994
Untitled (shed), Hales Gallery, London 1993
You Can’t Touch This, Hales Gallery, London Group
Exhibitions 2007 A Proposal, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea; Art Futures, Contemporary Art Society at Bloomberg Space, London; Relationships, York Art Gallery, Yorkshire 2006 Designer DIY, curated by FAT, distributed by Volume Magazine, Amsterdam 2004 Off the Beaten Track, Arts Council Collection,
Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Full Bloom, The Harley
Gallery, Worksop 2003 In Good Form,
Arts Council Collection, Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park 2002
Art and Mountains, The Alpine Club, London 2001 Multiplication,
British Council Touring Show to: The National Gallery of Bucharest and touring:
Romania, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Turkey, to 2005 2000
Point of View, Part One, Richard Salmon Gallery, London; Multiple
showcase, Camden Arts Centre, London; Tabley, Tabley House, Cheshire,
curated by Mike Stanley 1999 Signs of Life,
Melbourne International Biennial, Australia, curated by Juliana Engberg; Anarchitecture,
De Appel, Amsterdam; ninenineninetynine, Anthony Wilkinson Gallery,
London; Manufacturers, The Paper Bag Factory, London 1998
Martin Creed, Ceal Floyer, John Frankland, Delfina, London; Close Echoes,
Gallery of the City of Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, Curated by Olga Mala,
Wolfgang Denk & Karel Srp; New Art from Britain, Kunstraum Innsbruck,
Austria 1997 Belladonna, ICA, London;
Pictura Britannica, curated by Bernice Murphy, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Sydney; & touring to Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide &
Te Papa, Wellington New Zealand 1996/7 Plastic,
Arnolfini, Bristol 1996 Two Seconds Nine
Months, Bankside Lofts, London; Roadworks, curated by FAT, London
1995 Tell Everyone, Greene Naftali
Gallery, New York; To Whom It May Concern, Anna Bornholt Gallery, London;
Konrad Lorenz’s Duck, Ex Lanficio Bona, Turin; Young British
Artists IV, Saatchi Gallery, London 1995
The British Art Show 4 organised by National Touring Exhibitions at
the Hayward Gallery; & touring to Manchester, Edinburgh & Cardiff (1996)
1994 Tight, The Tannery, London Bridge
Extension, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University 1992
Whitechapel Open at Spitalfields Market, London 1991
Open Studio Show, Victor House, London; Ersatz, group show
of installations at Martello Street, London 1987
London Fields Artists (Open studio show) Collections
Private collections in London and Sweden; Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery,
London; The British Council Collection, London; Saatchi Collection, London;
You Can’t Touch This was permanently installed at the Saatchi
Gallery, London, 1995-7 Awards 2002
The Arts Foundation Award for Sculpture Teaching
2002 Lecturer, MA Sculpture, Royal College of
Arts 1998 - 2001 Head of Sculpture, City &
Guilds of London School of Art (BA and MA courses) 1995-8
University of Portsmouth BA Course; Visiting Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan
University MA Course; Slade School of Art MA Course; Winchester School of Art
BA Sculpture; University of Brighton; University of Wales, Cardiff BA and MA
Courses; Byam Shaw School of Art, London BA Sculpture; Reading University BA
Fine Art; Goldsmiths College, London MA Course; Nene College, Northampton BA
Fine Art; Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London MA Course; Fine
Art, Royal Academy, London; Ruskin School, Oxford University BA Sculpture; University
of Central England BA Fine Art
Bibliography
2007 Ben Tufnell, Land Art, Tate Publishing 2006Sally O'Reilly Peer, Time Out; The Guardian, 5 best shows, June 2002 Ben Tufnell, Art and Mountains, Contemporary 2001 Maev Kennedy, Rock On, The Guardian,
19 July; Duncan McLaren, You Can Touch This, Art Review, July/ Aug;
Duncan McLaren, Ancestral Voices, Contemporary Visual Arts, Issue 32
2000 Isobel Johnstone, The Saatchi Gift
to the Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery Publishing [catalogue];
Valerie Connor, Untitled (Disaster), Project Arts Space, Dublin [leaflet]
1999 Juliana Engberg, Signs of Life,
Melbourne International Biennial, Australia [catalogue]; The Guide, Guardian,
31 July - 6 August; John Meade, Building the Biennial, LIKE, Art Magazine
No.9 (August) 1998 Mark Currah, Time Out, February
18-25; David Green, Minimal Interventions, Contemporary Visual Arts,
Issue 17; Roy Exley, Tending the Abyss, Contemporary Visual Arts, Issue
19; Sophie Berrebi, Alternative Spaces, Art Press, No. 235, May; E.
Schlocker, Frischer insularer Wind, Tiroler Tageszeitung, No. 146,
27/28 June; David Bussel, Close Echoes, Gallery of the City of Prague,
Kunsthalle Krems [catalogue]; Clarrie Rudrum, New Art from Britain,
Kunstraum Innsbruck [catalogue] 1997 Rosanna
Negrotti, What’s On, October 8 - 15; William Feaver, The Observer, 5 October;
Martin Coomer, Time Out, September 17-24; Nothing Matters, Royal Festival
Hall [catalogue]; Bernice Murphy, Pictura Britannica, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Sydney [catalogue]; 1996 British Art
Show 4, National Touring Exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery, London [catalogue];
Philip Sanderson, Art Monthly, No.197, June; Evening Standard, Hot Tickets,
June 4; Claire Price, Building Design, No. 1226 , May 24; Mark Currah, Time
Out, May 22 - 29; Sacha Craddock, The Times, May 21; Richard Shone, Burlington
Magazine, vol. CXXXVIII, No.1120, July; Rosanna Negrotti, What’s On, May
15 - 22; the architect’s journal, May 16; Roadworks, FAT [catalogue];
1995 Sarah Kent, Shark Infested Waters,
Young British Artists, Saatchi Collection [catalogue]; Richard Dorment, Could
this be the real thing? The Daily Telegraph, April 5; Adrian Searle, The
Saturday Independent (April); Sarah Kent, Time Out (April); Richard Cork, Sinister
twist to the everyday, The Times, April 11; James Hall, The Guardian (April);
William Feaver, The Observer (April); Kaleidoscope, BBC Radio 4 (April);
1994 Geraldine Norman, The Independent (March); David Lillington, Time Out (March);
Kevin Rhowbotham, Surface 1993 Adrian
Searle, You Can’t Touch This, Time Out January 27; Paul Hedge,
You Can’t Touch This