Approved: 25.08.2011

Matthew Herring

Artist

Approved: 25.08.2011

For me artistic practice is scratching an itch and hence very hard to write honestly about (but I've tried). I've been thinking recently about the idea of negative space – the space between things – and how what you are after as an artist is often what slips between things and eludes you. A lot of the time, I think my practice is about constantly saying 'not this, not that'.  Certain images have preoccupied me – for instance the river – and all I really do is scratch that particular itch in the hope that it will yield up some sort of an answer, but it may turn out in the end to be no more than a metaphor for what I've failed to put my finger on. I hope so, anyway. Rivers can go backwards, and there's a sense of wanting to trace things back to a source of some sort.  

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Artist Statement

For me artistic practice is scratching an itch and hence very hard to write honestly about (but I've tried). I've been thinking recently about the idea of negative space – the space between things – and how what you are after as an artist is often what slips between things and eludes you. A lot of the time, I think my practice is about constantly saying 'not this, not that'.  Certain images have preoccupied me – for instance the river – and all I really do is scratch that particular itch in the hope that it will yield up some sort of an answer, but it may turn out in the end to be no more than a metaphor for what I've failed to put my finger on. I hope so, anyway. Rivers can go backwards, and there's a sense of wanting to trace things back to a source of some sort.  

A lot of my work since about 2012 or so has derived from written notes that I make, particularly on walks and train journeys. I started doing it to try to understand and make friends with the landscape around where I live in North East England; partly as an act of mourning for other wilder landscapes that I missed. What I've found myself recording is a picture of a landscape in its particularities and also the 'holes' in that picture, the gaps between the things that have names. I also allow extraneous thoughts and images to intrude, so that it ends up being as much about a mental as a physical geography. This practice developed in 2017 into a series I have named 'Territories', which has been as much about getting these notes and thoughts out so they can be seen. I'm currently thinking about how this series can be used generatively, to spawn other work. 

ANYWAY, that's quite a lot of writing: go and look at my website www.matthewherring.net where you can see more of my works. 

CV & Education

 

 

 

Personal

Born 1977 in York, UK.

 

Contact

Website: www.matthewherring.net

Email: [email protected]

 

Exhibitions

 

2016 group show This year's model, Studio 1.1, London

2015 group show Black Cube Collective Annual Show, Edinburgh

2015 group show Monsters, Maps and Myths, Rose Cottage of Curiosities, Sheerness

2015 group show This year's model, Studio 1.1, London

2015 group show PH1: artists in place, New Schoolhouse Gallery, York

2014 “satellite artist” to Stevie Ronnie in PH1 residency, New Schoolhouse Gallery, York

2014 group show Black Cube Collective Annual Show, Edinburgh

2014 group show This year's model, Studio 1.1, London

2013 group show Voyage: sea journeys, island hopping and trans-oceanic concepts, Künstlerhaus Dortmund

2013 group show This year's model, Studio 1.1, London

2013 group show Library of Lost Books, Birmingham and travelling

2012 group show Not Only, Factory-Art, Berlin.

2012, residency at Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, UK

2011 group show, Library Thoughts, Hungarian Multicultural Centre, Budapest

2008 solo show in St Michael-le-Belfrey Church, York, UK

2005 solo show at Westbourne Grove Artspace, Notting Hill, London.

 

Training

1999-2001 MA Communication Art & Design, Royal College of Art

1996-1999 BA (Hons.) Design: Visual Communication, Glasgow School of Art (first class)

1995-1996 BTEC Diploma Foundation Studies in Art & Design, York College of Further & Higher Education.

 

Awards

During my period of study I won the following prizes:

 

2001 Sheila Robinson Memorial Prize for Drawing.

2001 Mann Group Portfolio Prize (runner-up).

1999 John and Anna Laurie Bequest Scholarship.