Biography
Matt Smith (b. Cambridgeshire, UK 1971) lives and works in Kilkenny, Ireland. He is well known for his site-specific work in museums, galleries and historic houses. Matt started his work life at the V&A before developing exhibitions at the Science Museum and the British Film Institute. After retraining in ceramics, his work as an artist has often taken the form of hybrid artist/curator. Using clay and its associated references, he explores how cultural organisations operate using techniques of institutional critique and artist intervention. He is interested in how history is a constantly selected and refined narrative that presents itself as a fixed and accurate account of the past and how, though taking objects and repurposing them in new situations, or creating ‘lost objects’, this can be brought to light. Of particular interest to him is how museums can be reframed from an outsider perspective, and often this outsider perspective is taken from an LGBT viewpoint.
Recent and upcoming solo exhibitions include Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (2020/21); London Art Fair, Edit (with Cynthia Corbett Gallery), London (2021); and Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (2018). Recent group exhibitions include Cynthia Corbett Gallery, UK (2021); The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stokeon-Trent; and Gustavsberg Konsthall, Sweden (both 2019). Smith holds many awards such as Brookfield Properties / Crafts Council Award 2020 (inaugural), the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize (2014) and was Artist in Residency at the V&A, London in 2015.
