Qualifications
2016 – 2021 Shifting teaching practices of non-representational painters in British higher education 1975 – 2005, Coventry University, Research Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities.
2015 – 2016 Masters in Painting with Distinction Coventry School of Art & Design
2007 – 2010 First Class BA in Fine Art with Honours Coventry School of Art & Design
2006 – 2007 Foundation in Art & Design, Higher National Diploma, Merit, Coventry School of Art & Design
Publications
2021 British Abstract Painting in the Eighties, Coventry University
ISBN: 9781846000966
2021 Jeff Dellow: Visual Stream, Coventry University
ISBN: 9781846000973
2021 British Abstract Painting in the Eighties, Catalogue, Coventry University
ISBN: 9781846000966
2019 Artzine: Quarterly journal for visual art and culture, Class Room ISSN: 2632-4539
2019 Motion and Stillness: Works by Gary Wragg, Coventry University ISBN: 978-1-84600-011-9
Papers Presented
2022
Escaping the straitjacket: art school influences on the development of forums and magazines in the 1970s'Connect/Cut. Infrastructures and collective activity, University of Copenhagen
2019
British Abstract Artists in Higher Education 1975 to 2005, Royal West of England Academy
2018
Artists’ Workshops, Coventry University
2017
Letters from America, Dialogues between American and British Abstract painters, Coventry University
Peer Reviewing
2019
Journal of Contemporary Painting
Organized Talks and Symposiums
2018
In conversation with Jeff Dellow: Stone Space Gallery
2018
British Abstract Painting in the Eighties, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum
2017
In conversation with Christiana Illie: Class Room Gallery
2017
Fun Factory - Lanchester Polytechnic in the 1980s, Class Room Gallery
Networks and Association Membership
2018 – Present Coventry Art Forum (https://www.coventryartforum.co.uk/)
2013 – 2015 Coventry Local Studio Network
2012 – 2015 Coventry Contemporary Arts Forum
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2018 Matthew Macaulay, Trade Gallery, Nottingham
2016 Matthew Macaulay, 6 Gins Project Space, Liverpool
2012 Tumult, Lewis Gallery, Rugby
Selected Group Exhibitions
2020 At Our Still Lives Posed, Paper Gallery, Manchester
2020 At Our Still Lives Posed, Axel Obiger, Berlin
2019 Stuffed Mattress, Terrace Gallery, London
2016 Des Coventry, Dresden Exchange, Pillnitz Castle, Dresden
2015 Peer Review, Imperial College, London
2014 Auf Paper, Dresden Rathaus, Dresden
2014 About painting, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
2014 White Hours, Studio Apothiki, Paphos
2013 Glitch, Peacock Projects, London
2013 Treatment, Ps Mirabel, Manchester
2000 School Sculpture, Portico Library & Gallery, Manchester
Collections
Coventry University, Jaguar
Teaching
2023 Art History, Painting and Drawing, De Montfort University
2023 Fine Art, University of Northampton
2023 Painting and Drawing, University of Northampton
2022 Masters in Painting, Coventry University
2011-2021 Fine Art, Coventry University
2011 Foundation, Coventry University
2013 Painting, Aberystwyth University
2012 Art & Design, Rugby Independent School
Artist in Residencies
2016 Radebeul, Dresden, Germany (1 Year)
2013 Garfield Weston Artist in Residence Award, Aberystwyth Art Centre (3 Months)
2012 Drawing Prize Artist in Residence Award, Rugby Independent School (4 Months)
Awards
2012 Drawing Prize, Lewis Gallery, Rugby
2009 Jane Sutton Memorial Award, Coventry University
Selected Curated Exhibitions
2019 Motion and Stillness: Works by Gary Wragg 1962–2019, Coventry University
2018 Five Decades of Coventry School of Design, Lanchester Research Gallery Coventry School of Art and Design
Jeff Dellow: Stone Space Gallery, London
Jeff Dellow: Visual Stream, Coventry University
David Ryan, Class Room Gallery, Coventry
British Abstract Painting in the Eighties, Coventry University: Including Trevor Sutton, Clyde Hopkins, Jeff Dellow, Joan Key, Tim Allan, Vanessa Jackson, Patrick Jones, David Sweet.
2017
James Faure Walker, Class Room Gallery, Coventry
2016
Trevor Sutton: Assembly & Image, Class Room Gallery, Coventry
Gwennan Thomas & Karl Bielik, Kunstlermesse Dresden, Germany
2015
Mask, Glass Box, Coventry: Including Bruce Asbestos, Andrea Bergart, Jonathan Baldock, Frances Disley, Dave Evans, Justin Fitzpatrick and Hannah Knox.
Peer Review, Imperial College, London: Including Liz Ainslie, Ky Anderson, Andrea Bergart, Lauren Collings, Erin Lawlor, Meg Lipke, Matthew Macaulay, Phoebe Mitchell, Peter Shear and Tracy Thomason.
Contemporary British Abstraction, SE9 Container Gallery, London: Including Ben Cove, Alexis Harding, Geoffrey Rigden, Mali Morris, Gary Wragg, Mary Webb, Clem Crosby, Lisa Denyer, Dominic Beattie and Andrew Bick.
2014
Another Man’s Patter, Works by Marcus Cope, Class Room Gallery, Coventry
Pareidolia: Including Frances Disley, Jack Foster, Ellie MacGarry, Phoebe Mitchell, Andy Parkinson, Louisa Chambers, Ralph Anderson and Rachel MacArthur.
2013
Without an Edge There is no Middle, Class Room Gallery, Coventry: Including Katrina Blannin, Julian Brown, Gordon Dalton, Andrew Graves, Terry Greene, Mark Kennard, Hannah Knox, Mali Morris, Joanna Phelps, Dan Roach, David Ryan, Andrew Seto, and David Webb.
Meditations, Class Room Gallery, Coventry: Including Karl Bielik, Lisa Denyer, Rachael Macarthur, Matthew Macaulay, Sarah McNulty, Phoebe Mitchell, Joe Packer and Melanie Russell.
Jeff Dellow: Visual Stream / 2021
Coventry University, ISBN: 9781846000973
British Abstract Painting in the Eighties (2021), Coventry University ISBN: 9781846000966
Motion and Stillness: Works by Gary Wragg / 2021
Coventry University, ISBN: 978-1-84600-011-9
“Meditations is a fair title for a show of paintings that are more to be “meditated on” than “reasoned with”, more to be “enjoyed” and “felt with the eye” than “understood”. It could equally have been entitled Experiences or Events as Matthew Macaulay acknowledges in his Collection of Events, a series of oil painting on panels of sometimes slightly differing size or shape and leaned against the wall, mostly in sequence with one panel placed in front of two others partially obscuring them, and one placed partly behind another. I find that I am “reading” the work a panel at a time, from left to right as I would a text, so themes of language and communication come to mind, and then I am recalling that excellent article by Alan Gouk where he disputes the notion (borrowed from Lacan) that painting is “structured like a language”. This particular painting may not be structured like a language, but it is structured very much like a sentence. The syntax could be rearranged and it would have a different “meaning”, the word best defined according to the well known systems dictum: “the meaning of a communication is the response you receive, rather than the intention you had for it”. There is something urban about Macaulay’s painting. It reminds me of how a shared space like a city centre, whilst being consciously built, because there are multiple players involved also develops unconsciously, in a way that almost resembles organic growth, evolving and changing. In our conversation, Macaulay emphasises the temporary nature of the gallery space. This temporariness seems to be echoed in both city centre and painting. Many of the shops are empty with whited out windows and even the ways in which the whitening is applied seems to carry through to Macaulay’s painting: gesture and movement becoming object, for contemplation.”
Andrew Parkinson, 2013