Matt Saunders

Overview

Born 1975, Tacoma (Washington, USA)
Lives and works in Berlin, New York and Boston

Matt Saunders studied at Harvard, Cambridge and at Yale University, where he was trained as a painter. He has been the recipient of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award (2009) and the Prix Jean- François Prat award (2013). Matt Saunders has exhibited his work internationally at such institutions as the Tate Liverpool (2012) and the Renaissance Society, Chicago (2010). His work has been shown in group exhibitions at the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2011), the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2008), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2008), and P.S. 1 MoMA, Long Island City (2001).

Saunders’ works are a painting/photography hybrid whose final form is a photographic print. At their most basic, his works begin with small ink on mylar sketches derived from film and television stills. These mylar sketches are then used as negatives, either contact printed (laid directly on top of photo paper and then developed), or placed in an enlarger. As negatives, the mylar sketches are done in reverse-those parts which appear lighter in the photograph are darker on the painted negative and vice versa.

Jane (Blue), Version 2, 2019, Unique chromogenic print on Kodak Endura Premiere matte paper,
110 x 110 cm
Sophie, 2019, Unique chromogenic print on Kodak Endura Premiere matte paper,
110 x 110 cm
Jane (Arms crossed), 2019, Unique chromogenic print on Kodak Endura Premiere matte paper,
170 x 110 cm
Leni (Red), 2017, Unique chromogenic print on Kodak Endura Premiere matte paper
168 x 114 cm
The Distances (Peter), 2023, oil on unique C-print,
58 x 47,5 cm
Mirror, Version 2, 2019, Unique chromogenic print on Kodak Endura Premiere matte paper,
155 x 105 cm
The Distances (Jane), 2021, oil on unique C-print,
56 x 46 cm
The Distances (Peter), 2021, oil on unique C-print,
56 x 46 cm
The Distances (Peter), 2021, oil on unique C-print,
56 x 46 cm

Selected Works

Exhibitions

Weaving

10. Jan, 2020 – 15. Feb, 2020

Story of a Love Affair

24. Jan, 2025 – 8. Mar, 2025

Biography / CV

Born 1975, Tacoma, United States. Lives and works in Berlin, New York and Boston EDUCATION 2002 - Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT (MFA Painting / Printmaking) 1997 - Harvard College, Cambridge, MA (BA, Summa Cum Laude, Visual and Environmental Studies) SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2024 Six Landscapes, duo with Daniele Genadry, Institute of Arab and Islamic Art, United States 2023 The Distances, Blum and Poe, Los Angeles, United States 2020 Weaving, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark 2018 Matt Saunders, Librarie Marian Goodman, Paris, France Poems of Our Climate, Marian Goodman Gallery, London, United Kingdom 2017 Qiao Space, TANK Project Space, Houston, United States Tank Shanghai Project Space, China Currents 114, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri, United States 2016 Inondé, Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, France Two Worlds, Blum & Poe, Shibuya Tokyo, Japan 2015 Matt Saunders, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York City, United States Matt Saunders, Editions at BORCHs Butik, Copenhagen, Denmark 2014 Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, France Slow fading Hand, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark 2013 Matt Saunders: Century Rolls, Harris Lieberman Gallery, New York City, United States 2012 Tate Liverpool, Century Rolls, Liverpool, United Kingdom The Movies That Were Secret Remain Secret Somehow and A Nation Forgets Its Pleasures, Project For The Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center For The Visual Arts, Harvard University, United States Pleasures, Project For The Harvard Film Archive, Carpenter Center For The Visual Arts, Harvard University, United States 2011 Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, France 2010 Parallel Plot, Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, United States People on Sunday, Harris Lieberman, New York City, United States Occasionals and Danger Men, Galerie Analix Forever, Geneva, Switzerland Buster, Clockwork, Berlin, Germany 2009 Binsey Poplars, Harris Lieberman, New York City, United States 2008 Art Statements, Art|39|Basel, Basel, Switzerland Gallery Andreas Grimm, Munich, Germany 2007 Galerie Analix Forever, Geneva, Switzerland Prison Scene, Martin Asbaek Projects, Copenhagen, Denmark House Arrest, Homie, Berlin, Germany 2006 Harris Lieberman, New York City, United States Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France Grimm / Rosenfeld, Munich, Germany 2004 Grimm / Rosenfeld, Munich, Germany Galerie Analix Forever, Geneva, Switzerland 2003 Slept, Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York City, United States Two Videos, Sert Gallery, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, United States 2001 Screen Test, Galerie Analix Forever, Geneva, Switzerland 1999 Matt Saunders (organized by Ada Polla), In Vitro Alternative Space, Geneva, Switzerland GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2024 Summer in the City, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark 2023 Summer in the City, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark Six Landscapes: Daniele Genadry & Matt Saunders, Institute of Arab and Islamic Art, New York, United States 2022 WE PAINT, Ecole des Beaux arts de Paris (ENSBA), Paris, France American Academy of Arts & Letters, New York City, United States Kelly Nipper and Matt Saunders: ROSE MADDER MIRROR TIME MARKER, Grice Bench, Los Angeles, United States 2020 Photography’s Last Century, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, United States 2019 All the Marvelous Surfaces: Photography Since Karl Blossfeldt, deCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachussets, United States Duets, BORCH Gallery. Berlin, Germany 2018 The World on Paper, Palais Populaire, Berlin, Germany Summer in the City, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark Summer in BORCHs Butik, Copenhagen, Denmark High Noon, Arratia Beer, Berlin, Germany A brune figure in winter evening resists identity, Arratia Beer, Berlin, Germany 2017 Screens: Virtual Material, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, United States In the Abstract, MASS MoCA, North Adams, United States 2016 Double-take: Drawing and Photography, Drawing Room and The Photographer’s Gallery, London, United Kingdom Le Prix Jean-François Prat, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France 2015 Images that Speak, Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Summer in the City no.10, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark The Rest Is Silence: Agnes Martin, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom 2014 Summer in the City, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark 2013 Test Pattern, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, United States Summer in the City, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark VIDEO, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark Theatrical Gestures, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel 2012 Harris Lieberman, New York City, United States The 2012 de Cordova Biennial, Lincoln, United States Still, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom Summer in the City, Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark The 2012 de Cordova Biennial, de Cordova Museum, Lincoln, United States 2011 Plot for a Biennial, Sharjah Biennial 2011, United Arab Emirates (catalog) The Anxiety of Photography, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, United States The Ephemeral, Arndt, Berlin, Germany 2010 Stop. Move., Blum and Poe, Los Angeles, United States Sassa Trülzsch, Berlin, Germany Ratio 3, San Francisco, United States 2009 Untitled (History Painting): Painting and Public Life in the 21st Century, University of Michigan Museum of Art, United States PRIVATE VIEW II, Andreas Grimm Munchen, Munich, Germany Unaddressed Circumventions: Folds From a Failed Suicide, Gresham’s Ghost, New York City, United States A Twilight Art, Harris Lieberman, New York City, United States 2008 Passageworks: Contemporary Art from the Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, United States Politics, Maisterra Valbuena Galeria, Madrid, Spain Freeway Balconies, curated by Collier Schorr, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany 2007 Sweet Bird of Youth (curated by Hedi Slimane), Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany Blind Date Istanbul, Sabanci Museum, Istanbul, Turkey Tiere II, Kuhstall Moosalpe, Thalkirchdorf/Allgäu, Oberstaufen, Germany 2006 Back to the Figure: Contemporary Painting, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Germany Liquid Paper - Pure Land, Ratio 3, San Francisco, United States 2005 Founders Day, Grimm/Rosenfeld, New York City, United States The Parable Show, Grimm/Rosenfeld, Munich, Germany Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France Log Cabin, Artists Space, New York City, United States 2004 Hotel Hollywood (curator: Swetlana Heger), Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn & Taxis, Austria She’s Come Undone, Artemis Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York City, United States Works on Paper, Southfirst, Brooklyn, United States 2003 Lazarus Effect, Prague Biennial 1, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic Veletrzni Palac (curated by Lauri Firstenberg), Prague, Czech Republic 2003 Fair Play, Play Gallery for Still and Motion Pictures, Berlin, Germany Game Over, Grimm / Rosenfeld Gallery, New York City, United States 2002 Immediate Gesture, Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York City, United States On Paper, Galerie Andreas Grimm, Munich, Germany Enough About Me (curated by Deborah Kass), Momenta Art, Brooklyn, United States MFA Thesis Show 2002,Yale University School of Art, New Haven, United States 2001 B-Hotel, P.S.1, Long Island City, United States Wight Biennial Twothousandandone, New Wight Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles, United States 1999 Beyond Flaming, Galerie Atelier A48, Grenoble, France AWARDS 2022 American Academy of Arts and Letters 2015 Rappaport Prize, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum 2013 Prix Jean-François Prat 2009 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation 2001 Robert Schoelkopf Fellowship 1997 Louis Sudler Prize Thomas T. Hoopes Prize PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Museum of Modern Art, New York Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Guggenheim Museum, New York UCLA Hammer Museum, Calfornia Yale University Art Gallery Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge Museum of Fine Arts, Boston