Exhibitions

\\ Upcoming //

Develop+Print
Gareth Gardner Gallery - Enclave, 10, 50 Resolution Way, London SE8 4AL
Joint exhibition celebrating zines from photographers working in architecture. Produced 15 copies of Backbone, collaring 4 years of work on the project in to a 36 page zine.

2024

Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition
The RA - Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD
Backbone02 was shortlisted from 16,500 entries to the Summer Exhibition. Of the 4000 shortlisted works Anne Desmet selected Backbone02 to be exhibited. The show ran from 18th June - 18th August 2024.

If You Pass Go
LEX2 - 567 Old Kent Rd, London, SE1 5EW
Matthew White and Alexander Christie curated an exhibition celebrating the past, current and future of Old Kent Road. 9 artists exhibited on the road over a weekend in June 2024, there was also a guided architectural walk around the local area attended by around 50 guests.

Press Release
”Old Kent Road is in a state of flux with redevelopment underway and more still in the planning stage. With the Bakerloo extension on hold, the speed of change has slowed down allowing some time for reflection.

“If You Pass Go” aims to reveal and celebrate some of the historical and current elements forming the makeup of the area, as well as reimagining how these can inform and inhabit its potential future. Showing projects from architects, photographers and artists; works will range from creative investigations and propositions to tangible projects which aim to benefit the area.

The works will intrigue local residents and those with an active interest in architecture, history, regeneration and the trajectory of London. The exhibition aims to spark debate, discussion and engagement towards shaping a better future for Old Kent Road.

A guided walk will highlight features discussed in the exhibition”

Artists:
Matthew White, Alexander Christie, Lo Parkin, What If: Projects, Erect Architecture, Mark Brearley, F.A.T. STUDIO, Daniel Oduntan, Elliott Rawlinson

Close to the Hedge
Gareth Gardner Gallery - Enclave, 10, 50 Resolution Way, London SE8 4AL

Text from Gareth Gardner Gallery website
Why do hedges hold a fascination for landscape, urban and architectural photographers? This is the question posed by Close to the Hedge, an exhibition at the Gareth Gardner Gallery in Deptford, which opens on 25 April.



An open call for photographs that take hedges as their theme drew submissions from around the world. A selection will be exhibited at the gallery, which is the UK's only space dedicated solely to photography of architecture and the altered landscape.

‘I was flabbergasted by the enormous response,’ comments Gareth Gardner, an architectural photographer and hedge fancier who is curating the show. ’It appears to be the secret obsession of a surprisingly large number of photographers. I thought I was the only one raising eyebrows by pointing my camera at hedges.’

Gardner explains that hedges highlight boundaries, reveal demarcation disputes and divisions, provide visual privacy, conceal the world outside and hide mysteries within.

Photographs of planted boundaries can represent the tastes and aspirations of suburbia, transport us back to a time pre-Enclosure Acts or communicate environmental issues. 

‘From the titillation of suburban pampas grass to the triumph over nature of rectilinear laurel hedges, from plastic plants to dead privets, we have received photographs that tell a multitude of stories about modern life, society and culture, and our relationship with nature,’ he says.



2021

PERMANENT/TEMPORARY (London Design Festival)
The Bottle Factory, Ossory Road, London

Every Building on the Old Kent Road concertina, film screening (with QandA)

A week-long celebration of resilient creativity on Old Kent Road, as part of the Southwark South Design District in the London Design Festival.

Permanent Temporary confronts the constant state of flux we find ourselves in. Creatives in Southwark work in a permanent state of temporariness, as rapid regeneration shifts the ground beneath our feet and spaces for making are taken away. But even as our environment transforms at a dizzying pace, the fabric of our community remains strong. Curated by SUMweekly and Livesey Exchange.

2020

Passenger
Mass Virtual Gallery
Showing Every Building on the Old Kent Road as part of Mass.Collective alongside Agnese Sanvito (Multi-storey).

Crystal Palace
Retreat + Crystal Palace Park Virtual Space
At a time when we are limited to our houses and local spaces, two local photographers present a digital exploration of parkland and architecture shaped to this day by the power of the Crystal Palace. The work includes a virtual 360degree exhibition of the series "Retreat" by Amy Elyse Stringer and Matthew White with supporting plans, maps and historical photography.

Architectural Obscura
Virtual Gallery Space
Working alongside Isabel Marshall, Annika Derksen and Matt Colquhoun we curated world wide entries to form an exhibition of media created from the construction of camera obscuras.


2019

Yard Life
Keymet Works, Southwark, London
Curated video version of EBOTOKR, to be played in to the evening.

Every Building on the Old Kent Road
Anise Gallery, Bermondsey, London

Every Building on the Old Kent Road, 2019, is on the one hand a photographic document of one of London’s iconic streets whilst on the other, a homage to Ed Ruscha and his unconventional photography of the 1960’s.

In 1966 Ed Ruscha photographed the entire length of the Sunset Strip from the back of a pickup truck. The images were then spliced together and presented as a concertina photo book. He described them as “snapshots with only an average attention to clarity” and “technical data”. His process and presentation was stripped back and simple, beautiful and upfront. A documentation of what is around us, presented simply for the viewer to experience.

In homage to Ruscha, Matthew White has adopted the same methodology in his documentation of the Old Kent Road. Revolutionary in its time, it successfully and beautifully presented a long stretch of road in a concise manner. A precursor perhaps to future technology such as Google Street View.

Traveling along the 1.8 miles of the Old Kent Road, at a steady speed, White took his shots at set intervals using a remote. It was as mechanical and pure as possible. Up until the editing and presenting of course!

White’s project is dedicated to the work of Rushca but also to the Old Kent Road itself. One of the oldest roads in London, the Old Kent Road has been the main artery connecting London with Europe for over 2000 years. As such it has borne witness to some monumental events throughout history. It was this intriguing past, jarring architecture, overflow of industry and, against all odds, strong community feeling that prompted White to want to document the road as it stood today.

Big change is on the horizon however. The planned tube extension has caused major development plans to be drawn up including 20,000 new homes and 5000 new jobs over the next 2 decades. White’s photography will therefore become an important historical record and document of this infamous London road, and a homage to the pioneering work of Ed Ruscha.

2018

Identity - London Festival of Architecture
Anise Gallery, Bermondsey, London

AVR London, A-VR and Anise Gallery – present a multi-sensory exhibition for The London Festival of Architecture. The 2018 edition of the festival bears the theme of ‘Identity’ and as such we will be celebrating the history of Shad Thames and its importance to past and present members of the community.

With London in the midst of intense regeneration, ‘Scents of Shad Thames’ looks to the immediate neighbourhood and responds creatively through the media of virtual reality, photography and drawing, exploring how the identity of the architecture is shaped by its inhabitants and vice versa.


2017
Post-war craft - How London County Council architects defined high-rise living
Anise Gallery, Bermondsey, London

An exhibition of photography, architectural drawings and plans, vividly illustrating the influence of the London County Council Architects Department on South London’s skyline following the second world war.

2016
Shad Thames
Anise Gallery, Bermondsey, London

Celebrating the rich history, diversity and beauty of the Shad Thames area, through architectural photography. 


2011

Untitled
The Old Truman Brewery, Spitalfields, London

Untitled, engaged the viewer between an object and the depiction of an object. The concept behind the work was to challenge the way the viewer would interpret an object, to gain a new perspective. 

I chose a television as it is inherently looked through rather than at. The technique I chose was for the viewer to believe the object had been converted to photograph itself, therefore taking their time to examine both the object and the depiction of itself.

2009

Spectrum
Farnham Library, Farnham

As part of a group of six photographers. Each photographer chose a colour and shot exclusively in that colour range. The exhibition transformed the space within Farnham Library in to a graduating colour spectrum.


2008

Chris Lloyd 
Farnham Maltings, Farnham

Documentary project based around the life and work of Chris Lloyd who designs and builds props for television and film at Shepperton Studios.