MATT SMITH

b. 1971, Cambridgeshire, UK

Matt Smith is a multi award-winning artist based in Ireland and England. He is well known for his site-specific work in museums, galleries and historic houses. Using clay, textiles and their associated references, he explores how cultural organisations operate using techniques of institutional critique and artist intervention. Smith 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, through taking objects and repurposing them in new situations, this can be brought to light. Of particular interest to him is how museums can be reframed into alternative perspectives.

After Steinbeck

Following his recent exhibitions at Kensington Palace (London, 2024) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 2025), Matt J Smith has developed this new body of work specifically for Expo Chicago in response to John Steinbeck’s 1947 novel The Pearl.

The Pearl is a lesson in the destructive power of avarice. Kino, an impoverished pearl diver in Mexico, finds an immense pearl which he believes will solve all of his difficulties. Jealousy, greed and corruption amongst those around him lead Kino through a series of disasters, resulting in the death of his son. He ends up throwing the pearl back into the sea.

The works are made from parianware clay and freshwater pearls. Parianware was traditionally used to create sculptures of individuals in the 19th century. These works are sculptures of contemporary society. They symbolise a desire to be saved by possessions and people, even when that might ultimately prove to be destructive

A 31 Note Lovesong

Matt Smith developed this series while artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum, A 31 Note Lovesong uses molds from the former Spode ceramics factory in Stoke on Trent and casts from objects in the V&A’s archives. Cast in black parian clay, the works create a portrait of the workers who made the molds, and comment on the silence in the former factory. The juxtaposition of composite objects within the work reflects the arbitrary grouping that occur within museum stores. The work was selected for the British Ceramics Biennial and has been shown at London Design Festival and Gustavsberg Konsthall Stockholm.

Trouble With History

This body of work by Matt Smith is created from a found, vintage, needlepoint which is unpicked and restitched by the artist. Based on paintings by known male artists, the needlepoints were originally produced for amateur, anonymous sewers to stitch. Idealised figures are presented in bucolic settings, their faces replaced by the artist with neutral repeating patterns which disturb the working of the image. By interrupting without substituting a definitive alternative narrative, the work leaves the reinterpretation open for the viewer, questioning the heterosexual constraints of such imagery and prompting a re-consideration of the sitters' skin colour and identity and questioning the viewer’s complacent acceptance of such imagery. Works from the series are held by the V&A, the Crafts Council, Brighton Museum and the National Museum of Northern Ireland.

Matt J Smith is best known for his work with museums and collections. He recontextualises museum collections to consider overlooked or erased narratives, often incorporating LGBTQ+ histories and legacies of colonisation. Solo exhibitions include Losing Venus at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Flux: Parian Unpacked at the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge (UK), Who Owns History at Hove Museum and Queering he Museum at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham Art Gallery (UK) and the Victoria and Albert Museum London (UK). Notable group shows have included Dublin Castle (Ireland), Gustavsberg Konsthall, Stockholm (Sweden) and the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (Ireland). In 2015/16 he was artist in residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He holds a PhD from the University of Brighton and was Professor at Konstfack University, Stockholm.

In 2020 he was awarded the Brookfield Prize at Collect and the Contemporary Art Society acquired a body of his work for Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. His work is also held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Walker Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, National Museum of Scotland, National Museum of Northern Ireland and the Crafts Council collection. His work is currently showcased in the Foundling Museum Self-Made: Reshaping Identities Group Exhibition 2024 - 2025.

Matt Smith is represented internationally by Cynthia Corbett Gallery and was the winner of the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize in 2014.

Matt Smith | US