Matt Hope (born 1976,

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

, London) is a British artist who lives and works in

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

in China. He is known for elaborate

kinetic art Kinetic art is art from any medium that contains movement perceivable by the viewer or that depends on motion for its effects. Canvas paintings that extend the viewer's perspective of the artwork and incorporate multidimensional movement are ...

and

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...

constructions made in large-scale fabrication factories in mainland China.

Biography

Matt Hope grew up in London. He studied at

Chelsea School of Art Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. It offers further and higher education courses in fine art, graphic design, interior design, produ ...

, London in 1994–96. Hope received his BFA at the

Winchester School of Art Winchester School of Art is the art school of the University of Southampton, situated 10 miles (14 km) north of Southampton in the city of Winchester near the south coast of England. History Winchester School of Art (WSA) was founded in 1 ...

, Hampshire, U.K. in 1999, and earned his MFA at

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

in 2004. He lived in Beijing's

Caochangdi Caochangdi () was an urban village and renowned arts district located in the Chaoyang District of northeast Beijing at the intersection of the 5th Ring Road and Airport Expressway. Translated as "grasslands" in Mandarin, Caochangdi was home to a ...

, the artist districted identified with

Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei ( ; , IPA: ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been ...

from 2008 until 2020.

Work

Hope's work uses industrial objects often designed to his specifications and fabricated in Chinese factories that he works with on an interpersonal level. Common materials include speakers systems, solar panels, vehicles and shipping containers, all of which Hope combines into electromechanical sculptures that invite environmental input and flirt with the human scale . Recent work includes "Spectrum Divide", a solo show at

Saamlung Gallery Robin Peckham is an arts writer, gallerist and curator based in Hong Kong. In 2011, Peckham founded the Saamlung Gallery in Hong Kong, which closed two years later. He is the youngest exhibitor to be included in the Art Futures portion of the 2012 ...

, "Sonic Furnace" featured in the Get It Louder Biennial, Shanghai in 2010, "People's Power Station" at the Chengdu Biennale in 2011 and "Laoban Soundsystem: Infinite Baffle" at a cargo container storage bay in Hong Kong. Previous work includes Horn Massive and Microscopic Perfect Cube (2005). In 2013 Matt Hope's artwork Armored car (2005) was exhibited at SCOPE Miami by

Ace Gallery ACE Gallery is an internationally recognized art gallery specializing in contemporary art. ACE Gallery Los Angeles is located in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles a few blocks east of Museum Row. ...

. The artwork was a Jeep Cherokee reinforced with steel plates.

Towers

In 2015, Matt Hope had his first solo show at

in Los Angeles, featured sketches, drawings and a set of 10 ''Towers'' made of parts bought from the now defunct, Sun Dragon Hardare market in the outskirts of Beijing. :The Towers series consists of ten sculptures built from Chinese-made hardware: switches, motors, and structural elements. These skeletal frames serve as chassis to which components are attached that perform a variety of bizarre functions, kinetic, sonic, or other. The

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

described the ''Towers'': :Each is a sturdy jumble of rods and plates, plastic zip-ties, solar panels, battery packs, timers, audio and electrical components, standing human-height and higher. Most rotate, buzz, pop or make a frightful clatter as they do their ostensible jobs: converting light, heat, sound or one form of power into another. Sculpture Magazine reviewed the show and highlighted Hope's artwork, "To Fasten" (2006).

Breath

"Breath" is bike built by Hope that combines various found objects, including an electromechanical filtration system, that filters air while pedalling. Although technically operable, it is more of an artistic and theoretical response, rather than practical solution, to Beijing's pollution problem. "Breath" was exhibited in 2012 at Get It Louder, a contemporary art biennial in China. It is regularly mentioned in International news in connection with China's Pollution Crisis and was the inspiration behind Ofo's Smog Free Bicycle.

The Fatality of Lightness

Matt made a large sculpture of a steel I-beam with sections machined out of the beam to the point where it became weak in the middle. This 2016 piece was part of the group show at Long March Space in 798 in Beijing.

Sum of the Parts

In this 2018 June solo show Matt took over the Galerie XC Hua and replaced two columns, building supports that support the second building, with his own steel construction forever altering the space. The show also featured several pieces including ''Blind Infinity'' and ''Closed Loop'' and ''Noise Section''.

Drawings

More recently, Hope has been making hyper detailed pen and ink sketches as part of his day.

Sleight of Hand

In February 2019, his drawings were exhibited by Stefan Simchowitz as part of the Newsstand Project in a show titled, Sleight of Hand curated by Alexis Hyde.

#ZEROWASTE & Entropic Bodies

In March 2019, Hope lead a community project to create cooling suits like his self-worn, Cooling Suit (2019) before the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests and

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Miner Arch

In January 2020, Hope created plans for how to make an arch from used Bitcoin miners, in Miner Arch (2020).

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hope, Matt British sculptors British male sculptors Living people 1976 births Alumni of the University of Southampton University of California, San Diego alumni