Matthew Harris makes work that employs painting, cutting and hand stitching. It is concerned primarily with abstract imagery and the translation of drawn marks into cloth. By making work that is pieced, patched and assembled, he aims to create pieces that explore repetition, pattern and the disrupted or dissonant journey of line and image across and through the surface of cloth.
Matthew Harris has exhibited widely throughout the U.K, Europe, the United States and Japan. He has work in the World Economics Forum Collection, the Crafts Council Collection, The Whitworth Museum and Art Gallery and the International Quilt Museum, Nebraska, U.S.A, as well as numerous private collections.
In 2014 he collaborated with the British composer Howard Skempton and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group on ‘Field Notes’, an Arts Council funded, U.K concert tour. In 2010 he was short listed for the first Arts Foundation Award for Textile Art and in 2009 completed ‘Scorched’ a ten metre long Graphic Score for the newly refurbished Bristol Beacon Concert Hall, Bristol.
Matthew Harris lives and works in Stroud, Gloucestershire.
Commissions
| 2014 | ‘Field Notes’ Touring collaborative project with composer Howard Skempton Craftspace and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group |
| 2008 | ‘Scorched’ Large Graphic Score for wall New Extension Commission. Bristol Beacon, Bristol U.K |
| 2001 | Stage backdrop. Cheltenham International Music Festival |
Selected Exhibitions
| 2025 | ‘Forms of the Never Was’ Taste Contemporary, Geneva |
| 2023 | ‘Cut, Shift, Repeat’ Ruthin Craft Centre, Wales ‘A Table of Preparations’ Alice Black Gallery, London |
| 2022 | ‘Shades of Winter’ Taste Contemporary, Geneva ‘Seven’ Alice Black Gallery, London |
| 2021 | ‘Odd and Even’ Taste Contemporary, Maison Louis Carre, France ‘Future Fossils’ Alice Black Gallery, London |
| 2019 | ‘Matthew Harris Paul March. Taste Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland ‘Five Cubed’ Taste Contemporary, Geneva., Switzerland ‘Gordan Baldwin & Matthew Harris’ Bluecoat Display centre, Liverpool, U.K |
| 2018 | ‘Works on paper’ Erskine Hall & Coe, London |
| 2016 | ‘Tim Sayer Collection’ Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield, U.K ‘Field Notes’ 11 Spitalfields, London |
| 2015 | Matthew Harris Paper & Cloth, Tim Rowan ceramics Clara Scremini Gallery, Paris |
| 2013 | Collect. Saatchi Gallery, London Represented by Contemporary Applied Arts. London Matthew Harris work on paper, Tim Rowan ceramics. Erskine, Hall and Coe, London ‘50\50. Matthew Harris & Cleo Mussi’ Russell Coates Museum & Art Gallery, Bournemouth, U.K |
| 2012 | Galerie Handwerk Munich SOFA, Chicago Represented by Erskine, Hall and Coe, London SOFA, New York Represented by Erskine, Hall and Coe, London 50\50. Matthew Harris & Cleo Mussi Contemporary Applied Arts, London |
| 2011 | 50\50. Matthew Harris & Cleo Mussi Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, U.K ‘Modern Masters’ Galerie Handwerk, Munich |
| 2009 | ‘Taking Time Craft and the Slow Revolution’ Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery U.K |
| 2007 | ‘Fibre Art Now’. Gallery Handwerk Munich |
| 2005 | ‘Meet the British: Crafts.’ Ozone Gallery Tokyo Structure, surface, shape. Axis Gallery Tokyo |
| 2001 | ‘After Gruppen’ Drawings and Cloth. Cheltenham International Music Festival, Cheltenham, U. |