Matthew Cowan is a New Zealand artist, based in Berlin and Helsinki, working in the realm of traditional European customs. His works are photographs, videos, installations and performances, which play with the inherent strangeness of the continued popularity of long established folk customs in a contemporary world.
Recent exhibitions have been artistic responses to artifacts and objects in museum collections. These works can be seen as performative and are developed in close collaboration with institutional partners from various fields. Some of these current exhibitions were created as part of my doctoral studies in Artistic Research at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki.
Recent Solo Exhibitions
2023 Background Scenes, with Jana Müller, Mason’s Screen, Wellington, New Zealand
2022 Believing the Backdrop, with Jana Müller, Labor, Cologne, Germany
2021 Wildness Makes This World, Seinäjoki Kunsthalle, Seinäjoki, Finland
2019 The Scream of the Strawbear, Kunsthalle Giessen, Germany
2018 para field notes, Hyppolyte Gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2016 Wandle auf Rosen und Vergissmeinnicht / Walk on Roses and Forgetmenots, Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, Braunschweig, Germany
2015 Equinox Men, Kunstverein Langenhagen, Hanover, Germany
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 eight thousand layers of moments, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2024 Claws and Connections, KUVA/Tila, Helsinki, Finland
2023 Punctum, Haus am Kleistpark, Kunstprise exhibition, Berlin, Germany
2022 Infringements of a Species, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève / Kunsthalle Geneva
2021 Rituale Der Gegenwart, Künstlerhaus Sootbörn, Hamburg, Germany, curated by Salve
2020 Das Eigene im Anderen – das Andere im Eigenen, Städtische Galerie KUBUS, Hannover, Germany
2019 I Experience as I Experiment – I Experiment as I Experience, Uniarts Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki, Finland
2019 The Maiden, The Neck and The Mare - Harvest Traditions and Beliefs, Weald & Downland Museum, Chichester, UK, curated by the Museum of British Folklore
2019 Active Texture - between Text and Textile -, curated by Stephan Klee, XC.Hua Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2017 Artistic Research in Political Occultism - THE STORY OF HOW NICHOLAS II AND MAGICIAN PAPUS SECRETLY CONDUCTED A SPIRITIST SEANCE AIMED TO PREVENT THE REVOLUTION, AND FAILED, Hiekka Art Museum, Tampere, Finland
2017 inSPIRACJE, TRAFO, Szczecin, Poland
2017 Antitheses, group project, Research Pavilion, 57th Venice Biennale
2016 Sacred Economies, Malcolm Smith Gallery, Howick, Auckland, New Zealand
2015 loose control, Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Braunschweig, Germany
2015 Visiting Asia, Te Tuhi, Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand
2015 Imagine Asia, Pataka Art + Museum, Porirua, New Zealand
