Matthew Slotover (born 1968) is an English

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

. He co-founded

Frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

, a media and events company that has a focus on the art scene and that also produces the annual

Frieze Art Fair Frieze Art Fair is an annual contemporary art, contemporary art festival, art fair first held in 2003 in London's Regent's Park. Developed by the founders of the contemporary art magazine ''Frieze (magazine), Frieze'', the fair has since expan ...

. in 2021 he co-founde
Toklas
restaurant, London, and in 2022 he opene
Fort Road Hotel
Margate.

Early life

Slotover was born in London and grew up in South Kensington. He attended

St Paul's School, London St Paul's School is a Selective school, selective Private schools in the United Kingdom, independent day school (with limited boarding school, boarding) for boys aged 13–18, founded in 1509 by John Colet and located on a 43-acre site by Rive ...

and then studied Psychology at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. His paternal family (originally the Zlotovers) emigrated from Lithuania in the 1930s and settled in Newcastle. Slotover's father, Robert Slotover manages classical musicians including the composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle; his mother Jill Slotover is a children's book editor. Matthew's maternal grandfather, Richard Kravitz was an American magazine publisher who introduced ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'' and

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

to the UK. He first became interested in contemporary art after visiting the

YBA YBA or yba can refer to a number of things: * Young British Artists, a movement of British artists in the 1980s and 1990s * Yala language, a language spoken in Ogoja, Nigeria, by ISO 639 code * Young Buddhist Association, an association of Bud ...

art exhibition

Modern Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for patients, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

, in 1990.

Life and career

Slotover launched ''

'' in June 1991 with Tom Gidley as co-editor. The pilot issue featured the first ever magazine interview with

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest ...

, with a detail of a Hirst butterfly painting on the cover. Amanda Sharp joined ''Frieze'' in July 1991. In 1999, he founded Counter Editions, a low-cost, high-volume edition company, with

Carl Freedman Carl Freedman (born 1965) is the founder of Carl Freedman Gallery (formerly Counter Gallery). He previously worked as a writer and a curator. Life and career The 1990s and the Young British Artists Charles Saatchi arrived at the ''Gambler'' e ...

and Neville Wakefield. Slotover is chair of Margate'
Turner Contemporary
and serves on the board o
Sadlers Wells
In 2021 with Caius Pawson he co-founde
Murmur
a charity to combat the climate crisis via the arts. He was a judge on the

Turner Prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...

in 2000. And in 1993, he curated a section of the Aperto at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

, which included Damien Hirst, Mat Collishaw and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Through ''Frieze,'' Slotover published the books: ''What the Butler Saw - The Selected Writings of Stuart Morgan;'' ''All Tomorrow's Parties - Photographs of Andy Warhol’s Factory,'' by

Billy Name William George Linich (February 22, 1940 – July 18, 2016), known professionally as Billy Name, was an American photographer, filmmaker, and lighting designer. He was the archivist of The Factory from 1964 to 1970. His brief romance and subseq ...

; and ''Designed by Peter Saville,'' a retrospective of Saville's graphic design. In 2009, Slotover received an honorary degree from

University of the Arts London The University of the Arts London is a public collegiate university in London, England, United Kingdom. It specialises in arts, design, fashion, and the performing arts. The university is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of ...

. In 2010, Slotover debated whether "art fairs are about money" with Louisa Buck,

Matthew Collings Matthew Collings (born 1955) is a British art critic, writer, broadcaster, and artist. He is married to Emma Biggs, with whom he collaborates on art works. Education Born in London in 1955, Collings studied at Byam Shaw School of Art, and Golds ...

, and Jasper Joffe for the motion and against the motion

Norman Rosenthal Sir Norman Rosenthal (born 8 November 1944) is a British independent curator and art historian. From 1970 to 1974 he was Exhibitions Officer at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. In 1974 he became a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art ...

, Richard Wentworth, Matthew Slotover. Joffe claims that his criticisms of

led to his work being banned from the fair in 2010. ''Frieze'' replied that Resonance FM had hung a number of works, including Joffe's, against their agreement with the fair, and that to ensure a high quality level, artworks in the fair are included only via the galleries in the fair who are selected by the selection committee. In 2010, Slotover and Sharp were placed jointly at number 41 in the

ArtReview ''ArtReview'' is an international contemporary art magazine based in London, founded in 1948. Its sister publication, ''ArtReview Asia'', was established in 2013. History Launched as a fortnightly broadsheet in February 1949 by a retired country ...

"Power 100", a list of influential people in fine arts. In May 2011, Slotover and Sharp announced the launch of two new art fairs - Frieze New York, and Frieze Masters. Frieze Los Angeles was launched in 2019, followed by Frieze Seoul in 2021. Frieze i
now owned
by Endeavor. Slotover and Sharp were both appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to the visual arts. In 2021 he co-founde
Toklas
restaurant, London, with Frieze co-founder Amanda Sharp. In 2022 he opene
Fort Road Hotel
Margate with Gabriel Chipperfield and Tom Gidley.

Personal life

Slotover is married to design historian Emily King. In April 2017, the couple unsuccessfully applied for planning permission to build a townhouse just off Barnsbury Square in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

, North London. They would have had to make a £50,000 contribution to affordable housing in the borough, if the plans had been approved, but the application was rejected on the grounds that the plans constituted an under-use of the land, and over concerns regarding the destruction of nearby trees. In 2019 the planning rejection was overturned on appeal.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slotover, Matthew Publishers (people) from London Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire 1968 births