Matt O'dell

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Matt O'dell (b. 1976) is a British artist. Born in Bedford, and currently living in London, he graduated from the MA Fine Art course at Goldsmiths College in 2002.

'World Trade Center, New York, September 11th, 2001', 2005, Cardboard, 60 x 230 x 200 cm

'Project Echelon', 2005, Acrylic domes, modelling details, laser pointers, 1st and 2nd dome 60 cm diameter, 3rd dome 40 cm diameter

O'dell's work focuses upon such subjects as disaster sites, conspiracy theories, and religious cults. He constructs miniature versions of specific sites or buildings where significant events have taken place. He uses simple materials with little detailing, creating a distance from the real event, leaving it to the viewer’s own imagination to fill in the missing information, referring to the elusiveness of real understanding in a media saturated environment.

Upon completing a BA Fine Art course at Wimbledon School of Art in 1998, O'dell's work was included in the exhibition Richard Wentworth’s Thinking Aloud at Camden Arts Centre. In 2000, he was included in the group exhibition A Shot in the Head - Summer Show at Lisson Gallery. In 2001 he was shortlisted for the 2001 Beck’s Futures 2 - Student Film and Video Prize at the ICA Gallery, London, which toured to Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, and Sotheby’s, New York.

O'dell was selected for New Contemporaries 2002, which toured to Static, Liverpool and Barbican Gallery, London. He exhibited two works based on aeroplane crash sites, these being the Concorde disaster in France, and the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103, in Lockerbie, Scotland. Both works were bought by Charles Saatchi.

'Concorde, Gonesse, France, 2000', 2001, Cardboard, aluminium foil, spray paint, Approximately 3 x 3 metres

In 2005, O'dell's work was included in After The Fact at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle. The exhibition also included Thomas Demand, Emma Kay and Jamie Shovlin.

O'dell first solo exhibition was in 2005 at Galerie Schleicher+Lange in Paris, and was titled 'Infinite Paradise'. The exhibition included a sculpture based upon the World Trade Center complex. O'dell initially constructed a complete model of the seven buildings which made up the site, only to then meticulously destroy the model with a scalpel.