Matthew Flowers
Matthew Flowers (born 1956) is a British contemporary art dealer based in London and New York.[1] He is the managing director of Flowers Gallery.[2] Throughout his career he has been on boards and committees of international art fairs and arts institutions and since 2008 he has been a non-executive Director of DACS (visual artists’ rights management organisation). Flowers is also a keyboard player and vocalist.
Early life
Matthew Flowers is the son of Angela Flowers (Art Dealer) and Adrian Flowers (Photographer).[3] He has two brothers and two sisters.
Music career (1974-1983)
Flowers was the keyboard player, co-songwriter and manager of the rock-band Sore Throat.[4] Sore Throat made several records and appeared on Revolver presented by Peter Cook in 1978 and The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1980.[5] He also played in Killer Whales, Mattandan and Blue Zoo. Blue Zoo's song ‘Cry Boy Cry’ was in the Top Twenty hit 1982 and led to two appearances on Top of the Pops
Career in art
Flowers started working at Angela Flowers Gallery at weekends in 1970. He then assisted Angela Flowers (mother and founder of the Gallery) from 1975 to 1978 and became Gallery Manager in 1983.[6] The Gallery expanded in 1988 when opening Flowers East in Hackney.[7] Matthew Flowers set up Flowers Graphics (International print publishers) in 1988 [8] and became Managing Director of Angela Flowers Gallery in 1989.[9] In 1991 Flowers Gallery expanded further with an 18,000 sq feet space called London Fields. In 1997 the Gallery opened Flowers West in Santa Monica (California, USA) and Flowers Central on Cork Street (London, UK).[10] Matthew set up a publishing company focusing on artist monographs and survey exhibitions in 1995. From 2005 – 2007 he published State of Art newspaper with editor Mike von Joel.[11]
His gallery has represented many well-known artists,[12] including Eduardo Paolozzi,[13] Stephen Chambers,[14] Tom Phillips, Ken Currie, Nicola Hicks, Peter Howson, John Keane, Patrick Hughes, Alison Watt, Lucy Jones and Richard Smith.
In addition to representing contemporary artists Flowers has overseen many important group and survey exhibitions such as Artist of the Day, a platform for emerging artists since 1983,[15] Small is Beautiful,[16] British Abstract Art, British Figurative Art, Contemporary Portraits, Badge Art, The Thatcher Years “An Artistic Retrospective”.[17]
References
- ^ Peter Watson (1992). From Manet to Manhattan: the rise of the modern art market. Random House Publishing Group. p. 240. ISBN 978-0-679-40472-9.
- ^ The Economist. Economist Newspaper Limited. 1994. p. 91.
- ^ Adrian Flowers talks to Elizabeth Avedon, L'Oeil de la Photographie, 3rd July 2014
- ^ John Reed. House of Fun: The Story of Madness. Omnibus Press. pp. 73–. ISBN 978-1-78323-334-2..
- ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K5OTlmrDk8
- ^ "Angela Flowers: Playing to the gallery". The Guardian, 3 April 1999.
- ^ Country Life. Country Life, Limited. 1993. p. 83.
- ^ Printmaking Today. 1998. p. 15.
- ^ "London’s fine art galleries try new ways to lure in customers". Financial Times.
- ^ "Cork Street goes pop". Financial Times By Zoe Dare Hall
- ^ Soho Journal, Mike Von Joel
- ^ "Fair dealing". The Independent, Rosie Millard 23 October 2011
- ^ "Market news: Christie's appointments". The Telegraph, Colin Gleadell, 11 Apr 2005
- ^ Andrew Lambirth (2008). Stephen Chambers. Unicorn Press. pp. 33, 52. ISBN 978-0-906290-94-1.
- ^ Artist of the Day, London, by Emma Crichton-Miller, Financial Times, 20th June 2014
- ^ Aesthetica Magazine, Small is Beautiful
- ^ Facebook Album, The Thatcher Years