Matthew Galloway presents a mode of art making that can be best described as documentarian and historiographic. Working both within and beyond of the confines of the gallery, his work is broadly interdisciplinary, and strongly informed by his background in design. Past works include sculpture, installation, film, wall drawings, image and text, artist books and publishing. As someone who considers the act of making art (or design) to be an inherently political exercise, Galloway sees his work as using the methodologies and tools of design to engage directly with many real issues faced in contemporary culture; his socially-minded work expressing a desire for art to be a means by which to activate, challenge orthodoxies and present alternate paths.
Matthew Galloway (b. 1985, Ōtautahi Christchurch, New Zealand) lives and works in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. He is a current doctoral Candidate at Elam School of Fine Arts, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, and holds an MFA from Ilam School of Fine Arts (2012). He has shown widely at many of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading contemporary art institutions, including Christchurch Art Gallery, Adam Art Gallery, Hastings Art Gallery, Te Tuhi, Artspace Aotearoa, The Dowse Art Museum, and Dunedin Public Art Gallery. His work has been included in a number of significant international exhibitions, including Provincia 53. Art, Territory & Descolonization, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, and Melfas Línea orgánica, Museo de arte Contemporáneo del Sur, Buenos Aires (both 2017). He was a selected participant in the Cripta747 Studio Program, Turin (2019); ART Tifariti: After the Future, Art and Human Rights meeting in the Sahrawi Refugee Camps, Tindouf, Algeria (2016).