ART CITIES:London-Imprint 93
Matthew Higgs is an English artist, curator, writer and publisher, strongly influenced by the tradition of text-based Conceptual Art, he depended consistently on literary sources, treating texts as ready-mades to create what he describes as ‘Found Conceptual art’. During the 1990s he promoted artists outside the Young British Artists mainstream of the period.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Whitechapel Gallery Archive
“Imprint 93”, Matthew Higgs’ collaborative ’90s Mail Art Project is the first archive exhibition of Whitechapel Gallery. Highlights include Chris Ofili’s “Black” (1997), a series of cuttings from his local newspaper showing crimes attributed to black suspects, Elizabeth Peyton’s “Untitled” (1995), made from a sequence of video-stills of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain performing in 1993, and Martin Creed’s “Work no. 88” (1994) a crumpled ball of A4 paper that Higgs and Creed sent to the Tate Gallery but was returned to them, flattened inside an envelope, ‘rejected’ as an unsolicited donation. In 1993 Matthew Higgs established “Imprint 93”, an ongoing independent mail art venture which sends out artists’ projects. Higgs became an important promoter of contemporary British art, through his work as a critic, as a director of the Cabinet Gallery in London, and as an Associate Exhibitions Director at the ICA, London. He was also one of a team of three curators responsible for the selection of “The British Art Show 5” in 2000. Strongly influenced by the tradition of text-based Conceptual Art, he depended consistently on literary sources, treating texts as ready-mades to create what he describes as “Found Conceptual art”. Higgs invited artists to create works of art that could fit inside an envelope to be distributed, unsolicited, by mail to an informal group of friends, artists, and curators. Financed by himself and printed on an office photocopier, “Imprint 93” served as an ongoing curatorial project which did not require a space, circumvented traditional art world structures, and offered a unique platform and network for artists to distribute their work. The artists involved in “Imprint 93” were often at the beginnings of their careers, working on the periphery of the then emerging Young British Artists movement, but would later be celebrated as some of the most important contemporary artists. The artists whose works are exhibited include: Fiona Banner, Billy Childish, Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller, Peter Doig, Ceal Floyer, Stewart Home, Alan Kane, Hilary Lloyd, Paul Noble, Chris Ofili, Elizabeth Peyton, Bob and Roberta Smith, Jessica Voorsanger and Stephen Willats, among others.
Info: Curator: Dr. Nayia Yiakoumaki, Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, Duration: 19/3-25/9/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 11:00-18:00, Thu 11:00-21:00, www.whitechapelgallery.org/
