Lucy Gunning, (BACKSPACE), 1999 (installation view)
Press Information
1999 will be the Twentieth Anniversary year of the opening of Matt’s Gallery,
which provides a fitting opportunity for the gallery to examine the wealth of
documentation it has amassed over the 77 exhibitions of new work it has commissioned
from 44 different artists over its history. Diverging from a more standard archive
exhibition, BACKSPACE will simultaneously look back into the gallery’s
past but also at its present and its future.
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 documentation of exhibitions by David Troostwyk, Joel Fisher, Jaroslaw Kozlowski, 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, lan McKeever, Nan Hoover, Gerard Hemsworth, Anthony Wilson, Imants Tillers, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Richard Wilson, lan Breakwell, Hanna Luczak, Hannah Collins, Brian Catling, Kate Smith, Jimmie Durham, Edgar Heap of Birds, Melanie Counsell, Willie Doherty, Thomas Holley, Melanie Jackson, Matthew Tickle, Mike Nelson, John Frankland, Xenia K. Dieroff, Lucy Gunning, Sean Dower, Juan Cruz and Graham Fagen, together with information on the gallery’s influences such Galerie Akumulatory 2, Poznan.
Going beyond more standard documentary methods, the presentation of film and video of exhibitions and their making, slide projections, audio and text, photographs and models, will also be integrated with actual works by many of these artists. The exhibition spaces will have a formal structure but, as it is virtually impossible to condense twenty years of activity into any fixed summary, all elements will be open to change, from the films being shown, the slides for projection, and the objects and work on display. In addition to the integration of works from the past and present with the archival material, one gallery will house a weekly changing programme of new works by artists represented by or associated with the gallery, providing the most tangible way to sample the artists’ current practice. This multi-layered, continually changing structure will hopefully create a fluid, dynamic process of sampling the gallery’s history and relationships that is intended to stimulate the viewer to return again and again.
The impetus for BACKSPACE arose from the need to begin to collate the wealth of information the gallery has accumulated so that it can be formally presented in a fully accessible public archive in the gallery’s presently undeveloped back space. This process requires significant funding, both for the staff to organise the material and for the retrival systems and the archive’s physical construction. As a signal of the gallery’s intention to establish this facility the archive process will be active during the exhibition, with new material being added to the displays as it is uncovered. This physical process, and the critical debates generated by the exhibition, will also form the backbone of the production of material for an intended publication investigating twenty years of Matt’s Gallery that the gallery hopes to publish at the end of 1999.
The gallery is actively seeking funds for these projects from the public and private sectors. Interested parties should contact the gallery for details.
Born Newcastle upon Tyne 1964, lives and works in London. Studied Goldsmiths College (MA) 1994; Falmouth School of Art, Cornwall, (BA) 1987 Solo exhibitions 2004 Quarry, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; Esc, Matt’s Gallery, London 2003 Quarry, Spike Island, Bristol 2004 The Centre for Drawing, Wimbledon School of Art, London; Passing/Performance, Matt’s Gallery & GLOSS, Vauxhall, London 2001 Stage I (Show the Way Mischief), Westfalischer Kunstverein, Munster; Intermediate II, Greene Naftali, New York; Intermediate II, Art Now, Tate Britain, London 2000 Galeria Presenca, Porto, Portugal 1999 [BACKSPACE], Matt’s Gallery, London 1998 Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff; Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver; 1997 Malcom, Lloyd, Angela Norman & Jane, Matt’s Gallery, London; University of Buffalo Art Gallery, New York 1996 Flying, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston; Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; City Racing, London; School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1995 Adam Gallery, London Selected Group Exhibitions 2005 Building Capacity, Storey Gallery, Lancaster 2004 Love Story, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London; With Hidden Noise, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds 2003 Relaunch, Market Gallery, Glasgow; And the One Doesn’t Stir Without the Other, Ormeau Baths, Belfast; Lucy Gunning & Clara Ursitti, IBID Projects, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2002 Sunday Afternoon, 303 Gallery, New York 2001 Believe, Westfalischer Kunstverein, Munster; Liquor, Trafo-House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest, curated by Katalin Timar & Heather Galbraith; City Racing - A Partial History, curated by Matthew Higgs, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London 2000 British Art Show 5, National Touring Exhibitions: multiple venues in Edinburgh, Southampton, Cardiff, Birmingham; Everyone his own football, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands; Belvedere, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds 1999 Emboitages, Galerie Art & Essai, University of Rennes, curated by Ramon Tio Bellido; horsePLAY, Real Art Ways, Hartford, Conneticut, curated by Barry Rosenberg; Getting the Corners, curated by Matthew Higgs, Or Gallery, Vancouver; Künstlerwerkstatt Lothringerstrasse, Munich, with Juan Cruz, curated by Susanne Gaensheimer; W13999, W139, Amsterdam; Thinking Aloud, curated by Richard Wentworth, National Touring Exhibitions, to Kettles Yard Cambridge, Camden Arts Centre, London; Images: Festival of Independent Film and Video, Toronto, Canada 1998 Select, Film & Video Umbrella exhibition touring to Arnolfini, Bristol, Camden Arts Centre, London, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham and Turnpike Gallery, Leigh; Voiceover, National Touring Exhibitions, to Arnolfini, Bristol, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle, Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery; C’est La Vie, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Bruxelles; Centro de Fotografia de la Univeridad de Salamanca; Centre International d’Art Contemporain de Montreal; Do All Oceans have Walls?, venues throughout Bremen; Camoflague 2000, Gallerie Praz-Delavallade, Paris; Wrapped, Vestsjaellands Kunstmuseum, Soro 1997 Killing Time, White Columns, New York; False Impressions, British School at Rome, Rome; Treasure Island, Centro De Arte Moderna Jose Azeredo Perdigao, Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon; Ground Control, Beaconsfield, London & Jutempus, Vilnius; Wait & See (what’s for dinner?), Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne; Offside, firstsite, Colchester; Perish, Duende, Rotterdam 1996 Cerimonial, curated by Barry Schwabsky, Apex Art C.P, New York; Video Faz, Curated by Ruben Gallo & Terence Gower, Art & Idea, Mexico City; Museo Regional, Guadalajara; Behind Closed Doors: Video in Interior Spaces, The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Video from Centre Georges Pompidou, Artists Space, New York; Stockholm Smart Show, Sweden; Toyama Now’96: The Sixth Annual International Contemporary Art Exhibition, The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan; Offside, Manchester City Art Galleries 1995 Video Positive, Liverpool; KINE [Kunst] ’95, Belgium; Tell Everyone, Greene Naftali, New York; Speaking of Sofas, Soho House, London; Ideal Standard Summertime, Lisson Gallery, London; Whistling Women, Royal Festival Hall, London; X/Y, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; 1994 The Curator’s Egg, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London; Out of the Nineties, Mall Galleries, London; Wish You Were Here, Bank, London/Newcastle; Ecstasy of Limits, Gallery 400, Chicago; The Cologne Art Fair, Cologne; Nikolai Wallner Gallery, Copenhagen; BT New Contemporaries, Touring: London, Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh, Bradford, Aberystwyth 1993 Super 8 Moments, London Film Makers Co-op, London; 1991 Lucy Gunning/Martyn Ridgewell, Open Hand Gallery, Reading; 1987Whitworth Young Contemporaries, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester Awards and Residencies 2004 Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Visual Arts; Informal Architectures, The Banff Centre, Canada 2003 Spike Island, Moving Image Residency and Exhibition, Bristol 2002 The Centre for Drawing, Wimbledon School of Art, London 2001 DAAD award for residency at Westfalischer Kunstverein, Munster; The British School at Rome, Rome Scholarship, (six month residency) 2000 LAB Visual Arts Fund: Artists 1996 LAB Individual Artists Award 1994 BT New Contemporaries Award 1987 Granada Foundation Prize, Whitworth New Contemporaries; Falmouth School of Art Sculpture Award Collections Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London; Tate Gallery, London; Museum of Modern Art, Toyama; Centre George Pompidou, Paris; Contemporary Art Society, London; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York; Private Collections, London and New York
Bibliography
2004 Becoming-hysterical-becoming…,
Ruth Jones, JVAP, Vol 3 issue 2 Sept, pp 123-138; Lucy Gunning, Greene
Naftali Gallery, Village Voice, New York, July 7-13; Lucy Gunning,
Greene Naftali Gallery, Ken Johnson, New York Times, July 9; Lucy
Gunning, Matt’s Gallery, Rachel Withers, Critics Picks, Artforum.com,
June; Lucy Gunning, Matt’s Gallery, Barry Schwabsky, Artforum,
Summer; Lucy Gunning, Matt’s Gallery, Kate Zamet, Flash Art,
July-September; Lucy Gunning, Matt’s Gallery, Nina Madden, Artists
Newsletter, July 2003 Spike Island,
Victoria Walters, Circa 106, Winter; Lucy Gunning, Spike Island, Sally
O’Reilly, Art Monthly, November 2002 Lucy
Gunning, Tate Britain, Jonathan Jones, Guardian, 7 January; Lucy Gunning,
Tate Britain, Mark Currah, Time Out, 2-9 January 2000
A jolly good show all round, Tom Lubbock, The Independent, 11 April;
Belvedere, Deborah Scultz, Art Monthly, April 1999
Lucy Gunning - Juan Cruz, Kunst, Münchner, August; Snakes
and latitude, Rob Stone, Tate Magazine, Summer; Thinking Aloud,
space, 9 April; Lucy Gunning, Greene Naftali, Grady T. Turner, Flash
Art, No.205, March/April; Lucy Gunning, Greene Naftali, Frances Richard,
Artforum, February 1998 Art of the Moment,
Here to Stay, Roberta Smith, New York Times, February 15 1997
Lucy Gunning, Matt’s Gallery, Ben Judd, Untitled, No.13, Spring;
Lucy Gunning, Matt’s Gallery, Jennifer Higgie, Frieze, Issue
34; Lucy Gunning, Matt’s Gallery, Dave Beech, Art Monthly, No.205,
April; Lucy Gunning, Matt’s Gallery, Sarah Kent, Time Out, March
5-12; False Impressions, Marina Wallace, Art Monthly No.205, April;
The Rise & Rise of British Video, Sotiris Kyriacou, Contemporary
Visual Arts, Issue 14; Lucy Gunning at Greene Naftali, Raphael Rubinstein,
Art in America, November 1996 The Animal
Bride, Gilda Williams, Art Monthly, Issue 200, October; Let’s
Play Prisoners, Joe Scalan, Frieze, Issue 30, September/October; A
Frame of Two Halves, Robert Garnett, Tate Magazine, Summer; Lucy Gunning,
Barry Schwabsky, Review, Volume 1, Number 3, June 6; Lucy Gunning, Greene
Naftali Gallery, Stuart Servetar, New York Press, Vol. 9, No.21, May 22-28;
Lucy Gunning, Greene Naftali Gallery, Roberta Smith, The New York Times,
Friday May 17; Lucy Gunning, City Racing, Mark Currah, Time Out, May
1-8 1995 Beyond the Lost Object: from Sculpture
to Film & Video, Michael Newman, Art Press, Issue 202 May; Lucy
Gunning, Adam Gallery, London, Martin Maloney, Flash Art, Issue 181, March/April;
Animal Instinct, Kate Bush, Frieze, Issue 21, March/April 1994
New Art, The Late Show, BBC2 Television Broadcast, December 10;
Wish You Were Here, Burbage House, London, Liam Gillick, Art Monthly, Issue
180, October; BT New Contemporaries, Camden Arts Centre, Catherine
Elwes, Art Monthly, Issue 177, June Publications 2003
What is Drawing? pub. Black Dog Publishing Limited 2002
Lucy Gunning, Art Now, pub. Tate Britain 2001
Fine Arts 2000 - 2001, pub. British School at Rome, Rome; Everyone
his own football, pub. Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands 2000
British Art Show 5, National Touring Exhibitions, pub. Hayward Gallery,
London; Belvedere, pub. Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (text by Penelope
Curtis) 1999 Lucy Gunning/Juan Cruz,
pub. Künstlerwerkstatt Lothringerstrasse, Munich (texts by Andrew Cross
and Susanne Gaensheimer); Thinking Aloud, National Touring Exhibitions,
pub. Hayward Gallery, London (essay by Nick Groom) 1998
Lucy Gunning, pub. Chapter, Cardiff (essay by Denise Robinson); C’est
La Vie, pub. Centre d’Art Contemporain, Bruxelles; Centro de Fotografia
de la Univeridad de Salamanca; Centre International d’Art Contemporain
de Montreal; Voiceover, National Touring Exhibitions, pub. Hayward
Gallery, London; Select, pub. Film & Video Umbrella, London; 1998
New Art, pub. Harry Abrams Inc., New York; Lucy Gunning,
pub. University of Buffalo Art Gallery, New York; False Impressions,
pub. British School at Rome; Ground Control, pub. Black Dog Press,
London; Treasure Island, pub. Centro De Arte Moderna Jose Azeredo
Perdigao, Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 1996
Lucy Gunning: Persistence of Vision, pub. School of the Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston; Offside: Contemporary Artists & Football, Manchester
City Art Galleries; Toyama Now’96: The Sixth Annual International
Contemporary Art Exhibition, pub. The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan
1995 General Release, New Art From Britain
at Venice Biennale, pub. British Council BT New Contemporaries
1994, pub. New Contemporaries.