MATT SMITH

Born in the UK

Matt Smith is interested in how history is a constantly selected and refined narrative that edits out marginalised histories and presents itself as a fixed and accurate account of the past. His practice often consists of site-specific interventions in museums (Queering the Museum, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 2010), historic houses (Unravelling the National Trust 2012-2014) and public collections (Other Stories, Leeds University Art Collection, 2012). Using craft materials and techniques, Smith is infiltrating established organisations and shifting their points of reference. In ‘Wunderkammer’, the artist empties his figurines from their status-quo, creating pieces that combine high-art and low-art, choosing a black parian ware that makes it even more difficult for the public to interpret and read their origins and value.

Smith is Professor of Ceramics and Glass at Konstfack, University of the Arts, Stockholm. He has undertaken an AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Brighton, titled Making Things Perfectly Queer: Art’s use of Craft to signify LGBT identities, following a Dip HE in Ceramics from City Lit, a BA Hons from the University of Westminster in Ceramics, and MA Museum Studies from the University of Leicester. In 2014 Matt Smith won the inaugural Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize. From 2015-16, he was Artist in Residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Previous solo shows include Queering the Museum at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and Other Stories at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery. His work is held in the collections of the V&A, the Walker Art Gallery, Brighton Museum and Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. Smith’s exhibition Flux: Parian unpacked was at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, in March 2018.

Collect 2020 was a good week for Matt: the artist was awarded with the inaugural Crafts Council / Brookfield Properties Prize 2020, which is an acquisition prize. In addition to this one of his textiles was purchased by the V&A Textile and Design department.

Matt Smith

YOUNG MASTERS AT COLLECT 2020