Biography Matt Stokes (Penzance, United Kingdom, 1973)
Lives and works in Newcastle, United Kingdom. Winner of the Beck’s Futures art prize in 2006, Matt Stokes works across a variety of media including film, installation and events. Stokes’s work is frequently concerned with musical subcultures in which collaboration, shared authorship, and an enthusiasm for DIY approaches are central to his practice. For The Gainsborough Packet, Stokes collaborated with musician Jon Boden from acclaimed folk-big-band Bellowhead, composer Alistair Anderson (one of the UK’s leading exponents of the folk tradition,) and Tim Kerr, an iconic figure of the US punk and early hardcore scene. Solo exhibitions include VIVID, Birmingham (off-site commission (2009); The Gainsborough Packet, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2009); Real Arcadia, Lüttgenmeijer, Berlin (2008); Now is Early, Void, Derry (2007); Long After Tonight, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago (2007); Matt Stokes, Attitudes Espace d’Arts Contemporains, Geneva (2007); and Matt Stokes, ZieherSmith, New York (2007). Group exhibitions include See This Sound, Lentos Museum, Linz (2009); Crossing, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato (2008); The Weasel: Pop Music and Contemporary Art, South London Gallery, London (2007); and Ocho Y Medio, Quito and Maac Cine, Ecuador, curated by Tate Modern (2007). In 2006 he participated in the group exhibition Street: behind the cliché, Witte de With, Rotterdam.