Mat Collishaw

Matthew "Mat" Collishaw Hon. FRPS (born 6 January 1966) is an English artist based in London.

Collishaw's work uses photography and video. His best known work is ''Bullet Hole'' (1988), which is a closeup photo of what appears to be a bullet hole wound in the scalp of a person's head, mounted on 15 light boxes. Collishaw took the original image from a pathology textbook that actually showed a wound caused by an ice pick. ''Bullet Hole'' was originally exhibited in '' Freeze'', the group show organised by Damien Hirst in 1988 that launched the YBA (Young British Artists). It is now in the collection of the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, Australia.

Critical response

Jonathan Jones wrote in an interview with the artist in The Guardian of Collishaw's 2013 exhibition at Arter, Istanbul; ‘A show that foregrounds his political conscience in powerful works such as ''Last Meal On Death Row''. For me, Collishaw is a good political artist for the same reason he is a good religious artist and a good artist-artist. It is because he believes in the efficacy of images. Not for him the abstract evasion, the minimalist half smile... he wants to punch your imagination in the stomach. He justifies the art of sensation by showing how it can have depth in its oomph.’

Collishaw's seminal artwork, ''All Things Fall'', received widespread acclaim, notably by The Sunday Times writer and art critic Waldemar Januszczak, who wrote; ‘You walk in, and before you is a model of a classical temple, circular, domed, becolumned, around which hundreds of nude figures have been arranged in cryptic poses. What they are doing is unclear. But it seems to be something nasty. Suddenly the lights dip and the temple begins to spin. Faster and faster it goes, until the figures crowded around it jump into action, like drawings in a flipbook, and you have before you a remarkable re-creation of the Massacre of the Innocents, the biblical murder of every newborn boy ordered, at Christmas, by Herod. The sudden burst of unexpected violence is brilliantly paced, brilliantly achieved, in an artwork that is nothing less than a contemporary masterpiece.’

The exhibition ''The Centrifugal Soul'', at Blain, Southern Gallery, London in 2017 received notable praise, in particular critic Gaby Wood wrote of the work, ''Albion'' for The Telegraph; ‘...the fact that he can convert such abstract ideas into works that are elegant and entertaining makes him, uniquely among artists and thinkers so far this century, a cross between an aesthetic philosopher and a magician.’

Collishaw's first venture into VR, with his exhibition ''Thresholds'' in 2017, was reviewed by Laurie Taylor for ''frieze'' Magazine: "Collishaw has not recreated an historical experience, but has instead constructed an entirely new one. The end product is ultimately Collishaw’s vision and it teems with the reverence he has not only for the wonder of photography, but also for the power of its illusions."

Influences

British pathologist, Austin Gresham, wrote a handbook, ''A Colour Atlas of Forensic Pathology'', in 1975. Collishaw said it became "the Britart bible", as a source for explicit images of dead bodies for artwork.

Personal life

Collishaw was born in Nottingham. He was raised in a Dawn Christadelphian family.

In 2015, he was named one of GQ's 50 best dressed British men.

Bibliography

*''Mat Collishaw'', Thomas Dane, Jon Thompson, Artimo Foundation Breda, 1997.
*''Mat Collishaw'', Neal Brown, Jason Beard, Other Criteria, London, 2007.
*''Mat Collishaw: Insecticides'', Nina Miall, Haunch of Venison, London, 2012.
*''Mat Collishaw: Ou l'horreur délicieuse'', Paul Ardenne, Régis Durand, Julie Gil, Federica Martini, Barbara Polla, Michele Robecchi, Le Bord de l'eau, Brussels, 2013
*''Mat Collishaw'', Sue Hubbard, Rachel Campbell-Johnson, Blain, Southern, London, 2013.
*''Mat Collishaw: Afterimage'', Başak Doğa Temür, Arter, Istanbul, 2013.
*''Mat Collishaw: Black Mirror'', Anna Coliva, Valentina Ciarallo and Andrew Graham-Dixon, Galleria Borghese, Rome, 2014.
*''The Centrifugal Soul'', Waldemar Januszczak, James Parry, Blain, Southern, London, 2017.
*''Thresholds'', Eşikler, Istanbul, 2018.
*''Standing Water'', Petr Nedoma, Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, 2018.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*2008 ''Mat Collishaw Deliverance'', Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York City, US.
*2008 ''Mat Collishaw: Shooting Stars'', Haunch of Venison, London, UK.
*2009 ''Hysteria'', Freud Museum, London, UK.
*2009 ''Submission'', Haunch of Venison, Berlin, DE.
*2010 ''Retrospectre'', British Film Institute, London, UK.
*2010 ''Creation Condemned'', Blain, Southern, London, UK.
*2010 ''Shooting Stars & The Garden of Unearthly Delights'', Void Gallery, Derry, IE.
*2010 ''Magic Lantern'', Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK.
*2010 ''Last Meal on Death Row'', Analix Forever, Geneva, CH.
*2011 ''Pearls of the Abyss'', Analix Forever, Geneva, CH.
*2012 ''Vitacide'', Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York City, US.
*2012 ''Sordid Earth'', Greenaway Art Gallery, Kent Town, AU.
*2012 ''The End of Innocence'', Dilston Grove, CGP London Gallery, London, UK.
*2012 ''Crystal Gaze'', Raucci/Santamaria Gallery, Naples, IT.
*2013 ''This is Not an Exit'', Blain, Southern, London, UK.
*2013 ''La vie de château'', Château des Adhémar - Centre d'Art Contemporain, Montélimar, FR.
*2014 ''Black Mirror'', Galleria Borghese, Rome

*2014 ''Mat Collishaw'', Unosunove, Rome, IT

*2014 ''Mat Collishaw'', Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad, CH

*2014 ''Mat Collishaw: The Yielding Glass'', An Gailearaí, Ghaoth Dobhair, Donegal, Ireland

*2015 ''In Camera'', Library of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

*2015 ''Mat Collishaw'', New Art Gallery Walsall, UK

*2016 ''Folly ! Fountains Relief'', Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal, North Yorkshire, UK

*2017 ''Mat Collishaw, Thresholds'', Somerset House, London; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham; Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, UK

*2017 ''The Centrifugal Soul'', Blain, Southern London, UK

*2018 ''Thresholds'', Somerset House, London, UK

*2018 ''Thresholds'', National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, UK

*2018 ''Thresholds'', Yapı Kredi Kültür Sanat Yayıncılık A.Ş., Istanbul, TR.
*2018 ''Albion'', Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Moscow, RU

*2018 ''The Grinders Cease'', Blain, Southern, Berlin, DE

*2018 ''Mat Collishaw, The Mask of Youth'', Queen’s House, Royal Museums Greenwich, London, UK

*2018 ''Mat Collishaw, Standing Water'', Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague, CZ

*2018 ''Mat Collishaw, The Centrifugal Soul'', Castle Howard, Yorkshire, UK

*2018 ''Night Hunter'', Robilant+Voena, Robilant + Voena, St. Moritz, CH.
*2019 ''The End of Innocence'', Fundació Sorigué, Lleida, ES

*2019 ''The Nerve Rack'', Ushaw College, Durham, UK

*2019 ''Deep State of Rapture'', (with Mustafa Hulusi), Page Gallery, Seoul, KR.
*2019 ''Dialogues'', Villanueva Pavilion, Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid, ES

*2020 ''The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb'', St. Nicholas’ Church Korenmarkt, Ghent, BE

*2020 ''Mat Collishaw'', Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts, Nottingham, U

*2022 ''Zone of Machines'', Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Inc., Moscow, Russi

Group exhibitions

*2007 ''The Tempest - Mat Collishaw and Paul Fryer'', Gervasuti Foundation, Venice Biennale, Venice, IT.
*2007 ''Mat Collishaw, Anthony Goicolea'', Haunch of Venison, Zurich, CH.
*2007 ''Les Fleurs du Mal'', Arcos Sannio Contemporary Art Museum, Benevento, IT.
*2009 ''Mythologies'', Haunch of Venison, Zurich, CH.
*2009 ''Distortion'', Gervasuti Foundation, Venice Biennale, Venice, IT.
*2010 ''Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin & Paula Rego'', Founding Museum, London, UK.
*2010 ''Extraordinary measures'', Belsay Castle, Northumbria, UK.
*2010 ''Locus Solus'', Benaki Museum, Athens, GR.
*2011 ''House of Beasts'', Attingham Park, National Trust, UK.
*2011 ''Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities'', Museum of Arts and Design, New York, US.
*2011 ''Sordid Earth'', Roundhouse, London, UK.
*2011 ''Memories of the Future, The Olbricht Collection'', La Maison Rouge, Paris, FR.
*2012 ''Out of Focus: Photography'', Saatchi Gallery, London, UK.
*2012 ''Des Images, Des Histoires'', Maison de Jacques Coeur, Paris, FR.
*2012 ''Britain Creates 2012: Fashion + Art Collusion'', Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK.
*2012 ''White Light/White Heat: Contemporary Artists & Glass'', Wallace Collection, London, UK.
*2022 true city, custard factory Digbeth, Birmingham UK.

Awards

*2018: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, Bath

References

External links

*

Film about 2010 joint exhibition with Tracey Emin and Paula Rego at the Foundling Museum - The Guardian


(September 2012) at EVma -/+*

Artist's page at Gary Tatintsian Gallery

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collishaw, Mat
1966 births
Living people
21st-century British artists
English contemporary artists
Artists from Nottingham
Young British Artists