Mat Collishaw

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Mat Collishaw (born 1966, Nottingham, UK) is an artist based in London.

Collishaw attended Goldsmiths College of Art, London, [1](1986-9) alongside the likes of Damien Hirst and other prominent YBAs.

He has shown work internationally in many important exhibitions including “Freeze” at Surrey Docks in London, “Controlled” at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York, “The Parable Show” at Galerie Grimm/Rosenfeld in Munich, “Sensation” at the Royal Academy of Art in London and “The Passing” at Galeria Helga de Alvear in Madrid. He is represented by Grimm/Rosenfeld in Munich, Tanya Bonakdar [2] in New York and Cosmic Gallerie [3] in Paris.

He was represented for a time by the Lisson Gallery and had a relationship with Tracey Emin. His work uses photography and video. His best known work is Bullet Hole which is a closeup photo of a bullet hole in a head, mounted on 15 light boxes. Since then is work has changed to deal with elements of fantasy and illusion - notably fairies.

Mat Collishaw biggest break came in 1997 when he featured in the infamous ‘Sensation’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art [4] in London. In ‘Sensation’, Collishaw displayed large scale tiled photographs of a bullet wound in a head; this work is a good indicator of Collishaw’s artistic interests and practices. He typically takes imagery which is at once shocking yet strangely beautiful in order to examine the beguiling nature of photography and the seduction of visual imagery. Collishaw uses contemporary images alongside techniques and styles which are reminiscent of much older art, for example he often utilises a mosaic effect which, while alluding to religious art and Ancient Rome, is also now associated with pixelated digital imagery. In this way Collishaw brings together a variety of connotations in one piece that is both traditional and contemporary; dichotomies of life and death and attraction and repulsion are central to Collishaw’s art which tests our natural responses to disquieting imagery when dressed as sacred, slick or stunning. Known most widely for his photographs and videos, Collishaw’s work now stretches to installation, drawing and painting.