Matt Smith

Matt is best known for his interventions in museums and historic buildings. Drawing on institutional critique, identity politics and curatorial practice, his works disrupt traditional readings of art and material culture and examine who gets heard in cultural organisations.

Notable solo exhibitions include Flux at the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge 2018), Losing Venus at the Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford 2020) Queering the Museum at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (2010), 20:20, Crafts Council (London 2020) and Who Owns History? Brighton Museum (2023). In 2015/16 he was Artist in Residence at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Recent shows include Untold Lives at Kensington Palace (London 2024) British Studio Pottery and the V&A at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London 2024) and Self Made at the Foundling Museum (London 2024) and Following Threads at Crawford Art Gallery (Cork, 2023).

Matt holds a BA in Ceramics from the University of Westminster, an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester, where he is an Honorary Fellow, and a PhD from the University of Brighton. He was Professor of Ceramics at Konstfack University, Stockholm.

Accolades include the Brookfield Prize (2020), Collect Object of the Fair (2018) and Aspex Prize (2010). His work is held in numerous private collections internationally and major museum collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, National Museum of Norway, National Museum of Scotland and National Museum of Northern Ireland, with acquisitions funded by the Contemporary Art Society and the Art Fund.