Matthew Flowers

Matthew Flowers (born 1956) is a British contemporary art dealer based in London and New York.[1] He is the managing director of Flowers Gallery.[2] Throughout his career he has been on boards and committees of international art fairs and arts institutions and since 2008 he has been a non-executive Director of DACS (visual artists’ rights management organisation). Flowers is also a keyboard player and vocalist.

Early life

Matthew Flowers is the son of Angela Flowers (art dealer) and Adrian Flowers (photographer).[3] He has two brothers and two sisters.

Music career (1974-1983)

Flowers was the keyboard player, co-songwriter and manager of the rock band Sore Throat.[4] Sore Throat made several records and appeared on Revolver presented by Peter Cook in 1978 and The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1980.[5] He also played in Killer Whales, Mattandan and Blue Zoo. Blue Zoo's song, "Cry Boy Cry" was a UK top 20 hit in 1982, and led to two appearances on Top of the Pops.

Career in art

Flowers started working at Angela Flowers Gallery at weekends in 1970. He then assisted his mother Angela Flowers (founder of the Gallery) from 1975 to 1978 and became gallery manager in 1983.[6] The Gallery expanded in 1988 when opening Flowers East in Hackney.[7] Matthew Flowers set up Flowers Graphics (International print publishers) in 1988[8] and became Managing Director of Angela Flowers Gallery in 1989.[9] In 1991 Flowers Gallery expanded further with an 18,000 sq feet space called London Fields. In 1997 the Gallery opened Flowers West in Santa Monica (California, USA) and Flowers Central on Cork Street (London, UK).[10] Matthew set up a publishing company focusing on artist monographs and survey exhibitions in 1995. From 2005 – 2007 he published State of Art newspaper with editor Mike von Joel.[11]

His gallery has represented many well-known artists,[12] including Eduardo Paolozzi,[13] Stephen Chambers,[14] Tom Phillips, Ken Currie, Nicola Hicks, Peter Howson, John Keane, Patrick Hughes, Alison Watt, Lucy Jones and Richard Smith.

In addition to representing contemporary artists Flowers has overseen many important group and survey exhibitions such as Artist of the Day, a platform for emerging artists since 1983,[15] Small is Beautiful,[16] British Abstract Art, British Figurative Art, Contemporary Portraits, Badge Art, The Thatcher Years "An Artistic Retrospective".[17]

References
  1. Peter Watson (1992). From Manet to Manhattan: the rise of the modern art market. Random House Publishing Group. p. 240. ISBN 978-0-679-40472-9.
  2. The Economist. Economist Newspaper Limited. 1994. p. 91.
  3. "Adrian Flowers Talks To Elizabeth Avedon". Loeildelaphotographie.com. 3 July 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  4. John Reed. House of Fun: The Story of Madness. Omnibus Press. pp. 73–. ISBN 978-1-78323-334-2.
  5. "BBC2 - The Old Grey Whistle Test: The Ramones and Sore Throat (1980)". YouTube. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  6. "Angela Flowers: Playing to the gallery". The Guardian, 3 April 1999.
  7. Country Life. Country Life, Limited. 1993. p. 83.
  8. Printmaking Today. 1998. p. 15.
  9. "London’s fine art galleries try new ways to lure in customers". Financial Times.
  10. "Cork Street goes pop". Financial Times By Zoe Dare Hall
  11. "Soho Journal, Mike Von Joel". Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  12. "Fair dealing" Archived 6 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine. The Independent, Rosie Millard 23 October 2011
  13. "Market news: Christie's appointments". The Daily Telegraph, Colin Gleadell, 11 Apr 2005
  14. Andrew Lambirth (2008). Stephen Chambers. Unicorn Press. pp. 33, 52. ISBN 978-0-906290-94-1.
  15. "'Artist of the Day', London". Ft.com. 20 June 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  16. "Aesthetica Magazine - Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, London and New York". Aestheticamagazine.com. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  17. "THE THATCHER YEARS | Facebook". Facebook.com. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
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