Seeing the Unseen, Hearing the Unspoken

I will be showing a selection of collages from my ‘Death Landscapes III‘ series at the 6th John Ruskin Prize exhibition between the 1st and 17th of February. Organised by @thebigdraw, ‘Seeing the Unseen, Hearing the Unspoken’ takes place at the Buoy Store, Trinity Buoy Wharf, 64 Orchard Place, London, E14 0JW⁠. This multidisciplinary art prize featuring 60+ works of sculpture, painting, photography and more.

Selected from over 4000 entries, the final shortlist of 78 pieces from 68 artists, makers and innovators have been given a “platform for the unseen to be seen and the unspoken to be heard”.

The members of The 6th John Ruskin Prize selection panel are: Narinder Sagoo MBE, Cornelia Parker CBE RA, Bob and Roberta Smith RA, Gary Hill, Dr Rachel Dickinson, Julian Stair and Jane Barnes.

Shortlisted Artists: Graham Short, Claudia Barreira, Nick Grellier, Keith Ashcroft, Fiona Hodges, Elmira Zohrehnejad, Pascal Miehe, Blythe Plenderleith, Belinda Ellis, Sally Muir, Lorsen Camps, Jared Barbick, William Bacon, Helen Restorick, Linda Hubbard, Julie Graves, Matt Lee, Abby Cocovini, Isobel Scarsbrook, Thomas Cameron, Muhammad Hossain, Olana Light, Anna Larin, Scott Kelly, Francesca Alaimo, Max Bainbridge, Alyson J Barton, Katy Shepherd, J.G.Fox, Patricia Townsend, Simone Guideri, Rhys Thorpe, Trudie Shutler, Lucy Stopford, Ruth Swain, Sally Hewett, Wyatt Carson, Kirsty Bogle, Maayan Sophia Weisstub, Alan Fortescue, Julia Polonski, David Aston, Helen Restorick, Zoja Kalinovskis, Olga Kataeva-Rochford, Eithne Healy, Frances Gynn, Emily Lucas, Blair Cahill, Lydia Adams, Donna Fleming, Duncan Cameron, Julie Barnes, Eddy Greenwood, Sally Baldwin, Antoni Kuźniarz, Caroline Burraway, Kerry Collison, Dorcas Casey, Kate McDonnell, Fiona Hodges, Pinkie Maclure, Zac Weinberg, Francesca Centioni, Chris Alton, Hanfei Dyson, Daniel Hosego, Curtis Holder, Sarah Gillespie, and Elias Mendel.

Cite

CITE – an art exhibition in celebration of South Asian Heritage Month 2023

1st – 31st July, 2023 
Lea Bridge Library, London, UK

Venue opening times and days:
Mon-Fri: 9am to 7pm,
Sat: 9am to 6pm,
Sun: 10am to 4pm

‘Cite’ presents artwork by six London based visual artists with connections to South Asian heritage in celebration of South Asian Heritage Month 2023 at Lea Bridge Library Pavilion. Bringing together a diverse range of media including drawing, printmaking, photography and painting, all artists cite or refer to a sense of place both real and abstract. 

Curated by artist Vasundhara Sellamuthu @vasusell and co-curated by Alex Fox @alexjrfox

Participating artists include:
Adia Wahid @studio.adia
Gaurav Gupta @gaurr_gupta
Jyoti Bharwani @paintspaces_studio
Shahed Saleem @shahed.saleem
Smriti Mehra @smriti_mehra & Matt Lee @mattrdlee
Vasundhara Sellamuthu @vasusell

@walthamforestlibraries
@leytonstonearts

Being Brent – Private View

A few images from the opening of the “Being Brent” exhibition at Brent Museum and Archives.

“Stop.Look.Listen.” will inhabit The Exhibition Space on the second floor of the Willesden Library until the 20th of January, 2023.

Commission supported by the Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A big thank you to Rebecca Thompson, Camilla Churchill and James Ward.

Smriti Mehra and Matt Lee, 2022

Being Brent exhibition

Over the past few months Smriti Mehra and I have been working on a commission for Brent Museum and Archives. Our project celebrates Brent’s green spaces and will be featured as part of ‘Being Brent’ – an exhibition running from 30th June 2022 – 20th January 2023, supported by the Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Stop. Look. Listen.

This art project highlights a selection of Brent’s green spaces – Barham Park, Fryent Country Park, Gladstone Park, King Edward VII Park, Roundwood Park and Welsh Harp.

Parks are public spaces. While everyone has access to them they also serve as sites of deeply personal significance. The project invites people to share these personal perspectives to make visible the varied nature of how they serve us, as well as denoting a commonality of our lived experience.

As visitors navigate their way through these green spaces that enrich our bustling, cosmopolitan city, they are confronted with a variety of sign boards. These include signs that elucidate the history of the space, give directions, have maps or simply tell you what’s allowed or disallowed in the space. While restrictions in these spaces might seem prohibitive and at times odd, they are fundamental to the collective responsibility required to protect and conserve these natural habitats. “Stop. Look. Listen” emphasizes this importance. Signs obscure views and it is through these signs that we reflect on the details and nuances of what they serve to do.

Matt Lee & Smriti Mehra, 2022

Re:store Re:new Re:imagine at Willesden Gallery

‘Re:store, Re:new, Re:imagine’ is a group show at Willesden Gallery curated by Nadia Nervo. The exhibition runs from 5th August – 3rd September and includes a photography project titled ‘Here Only‘, by Smriti Mehra and me.

“In the current climate, whilst dealing with the uncertainty and anxiety caused by the global pandemic, art can help us become more resilient and support our health and wellbeing. Now more than ever it is important to engage in mindful creative and artistic processes and bring artists together across our community.

Re:store, Re:new, Re:imagine – finding balance through art brings together 30 artists working with different medias including photography, painting, printmaking, sculpture, collage and video, the exhibition showcases both emerging and established artists.”

Featured artists: Agnieszka Laskus, Audrey Rangel Aguirre, Aurelie Freoua, Bethe Bronson, Champa Goria, Danbob Clarke, Ella Frost, Henryk Terpilowski, Holly Watson, Jagruti Modi, Jose Gomez, KV Duong, Laurence Jansen, Lily Hargreaves, Lin Wan-Ru Lynn, Dennison Magdalena, Gluszak-Holeksa, Marc Fresko, Maria Kaleta, Marianne Simonin, Matt Lee & Smriti Mehra, Miranda Lopatkin, Nicole Wassall, Punam Singh, Ruth Craig, Sam van Strien, Shereena Habib, Svetlana Atlavina, Yvette Blumberg, Zahrah Vawda

Always Present exhibition – Void Collective

A selection of my Death Landscape collages will feature in an exhibition with Void Collective, curated by Rachel Letchford and Jacob Weeks.

‘Always Present’ is an online exhibition that brings together the work of 25 contemporary artists. Featuring photography, video, objects and printmaking; the works on show centre around themes of identity, remembrance and the transient nature of images.

From familial histories to memory loss, hand gestures to flying children, the works on show cover a broad range of creative responses and highlight how our past is always caught up in the present, and projecting itself into the future.

From April 29th 2021 via the website. www.void-collective.com/always-present

One Minute With…

A one minute video about my art practice for Willesden Gallery on their Instagram page.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Willesden Gallery (@willesden_gallery)

Revealing watermarks – a remote collaboration between Conservation and Imaging

In this remote collaboration, between members of the Conservation and Imaging teams at the British Library Qatar Foundation Partnership, we developed tools which highlight and reveal watermarks found within a series of ship’s journals dating from 1605-1705, relating to East India Company’s voyages. Part of my role involved drawing a collection of 78 watermarks that vary in design and complexity. An article about this project can be read on the Archivoz: International Archives Magazine website.

Here Only – Smriti Mehra & Matt Lee

A lockdown photography collaboration with Smriti Mehra for the ‘Once Together‘ project, curated by Ina Kaur.

‘Forced to stay indoors in their one-bedroom apartment in London, this photo series explores the physical, virtual, mental and emotional confines of the strange instance created by the pandemic. Through the objects in their home the artists imply routine, repetition, anxiety, exhaustion, domesticity, technology, the inescapable political climate and the experience of time.’

The work of all the artists who contributed to the ‘Once Together’ project can be seen here. A curatorial note about this project can be read here.

Smriti Mehra & Matt Lee

British Library Watermarks Project

The Watermarks Project is an ongoing collaboration between members of the Conservation and Imaging teams from the British Library Qatar Foundation Partnership. In this project we have developed tools which highlight and reveal the watermarks found within a series of ship’s journals dating from 1605-1705, relating to the East India Company’s voyages. My role has involved drawing and digitising a collection of 78 watermarks that vary in design and complexity. Read about the process and techniques used to make these watermarks visible on the British Library’s Digital Scholarship blog.

Gif created by Jordi Clopes-Masjuan.