Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders is an American artist, born in 1975 in Tacoma, Washington. Deeply creative, Saunders chose to study visual arts in some of the most prestigious universities in the US. He graduated from Harvard in 1997, and from Yale in 2000. In 2002, he moved to Europe and settled down in Berlin, which at the time was at the forefront of the contemporary art scene.

Twentieth century avant-garde cinema is an endless source of inspiration for Matt Saunders, and his works derive a certain melancholia from this central theme. The discovery of Andy Warhol's and Jack Smith's performative movies led the young artist to explore moving pictures. He directed a couple of artistic short movies in 16 mm himself. However, in Saunders's work, movement is also explored through other media, such as paintings or drawings. The artists indeed refuses to limit himself to a single medium, and is always innovating and pushing boundaries further in his perpetual quest for identity.

Many of Saunders's creations begin with a Polaroid picture. He can for instance take pictures of his television screen to let himself be inspired by stars of the small screen. In other instances, portraits found here or there, or ads cut off from magazines will stand at the centre of his dark pieces. Saunders' s creations often resemble shadows or figures eroded by the passing of time. Although he mixes and matches pictorial techniques, his works tend to remain in grey tones or black-and-white, which gives them an air of mystery.

The artist is also fascinated by the movie stars of the avant-garde era, who exited the spotlights as fast as they had entered it. He focuses on these figures who were adored then forgotten in a heartbeat to ground his reflection on movement and time.

The art world has acknowledged the value of Matt Saunders's work many times: he notably received the 2009 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award, the 2013 Prix Jean-François Prat and the 2015 Rappaport Prize.

His work has also been included in several group and solo exhibitions in prestigious institutions throughout the world: in 2008 at the Guggenheim in Berlin, in 2012 at the Tate Liverpool, in 2013 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and at the MoMA in 2014.