Matthew Slotover

Slotover was born in London and grew up in South Kensington. He attended St Paul's School, London and then studied Psychology at Oxford University.[1]

His paternal family (originally the Zlotovers) emigrated from Lithuania in the 1930s and settled in Newcastle.[2] Slotover's father, Robert Slotover manages classical musicians including the composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle; his mother Jill Slotover is a children's book editor. Matthew's maternal grandfather, Richard Kravitz was an American magazine publisher who introduced Esquire and DC Comics to the UK.[3]

He first became interested in contemporary art after visiting the YBA art exhibition Modern Medicine, in 1990.[4]

Slotover launched Frieze in June 1991 with Tom Gidley as co-editor. The pilot issue featured the first ever magazine interview with Damien Hirst, with a detail of a Hirst butterfly painting on the cover. Amanda Sharp joined Frieze in July 1991. In 1999, he founded Counter Editions, a low-cost, high-volume edition company, with Carl Freedman and Neville Wakefield.

Slotover is chair of the South London Gallery board of trustees. In 2000, he was a judge on the Turner Prize. And in 1993, he curated a section of the Aperto at the Venice Biennale, which included Damien Hirst, Mat Collishaw and Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Through Frieze, Slotover has published the books: What the Butler Saw - The Selected Writings of Stuart Morgan; All Tomorrow's Parties - Photographs of Andy Warhol’s Factory, by Billy Name; and Designed by Peter Saville, a retrospective of Saville's graphic design.

In 2009, Slotover received an honorary degree from University of the Arts London.[5][6]

In 2010, Slotover debated whether "art fairs are about money" with Louisa Buck, Matthew Collings, and Jasper Joffe for the motion and against the motion Norman Rosenthal, Richard Wentworth, Matthew Slotover.[7] Joffe claims that his criticisms of Frieze Art Fair led to his work being banned from the fair in 2010. Frieze replied that Resonance FM had hung a number of works, including Joffe's, against their agreement with the fair, and that to ensure a high quality level, artworks in the fair are included only via the galleries in the fair who are selected by the selection committee.[8]

In May 2011, Slotover and Sharp announced the launch of two new art fairs - Frieze New York, and Frieze Masters.[9][10]

In 2010, Slotover and Sharp were placed jointly at number 41 in the ArtReview "Power 100", a list of influential people in fine arts.[11]

Slotover and Sharp were both appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to the visual arts.[12]

In April 2017, the couple unsuccessfully applied for planning permission to build a townhouse just off Barnsbury Square in Islington, North London. They would have had to make a £50,000 contribution to affordable housing in the borough, if the plans had been approved, but the application was rejected on the grounds that the plans constituted an under-use of the land, and over concerns regarding the destruction of nearby trees.[13][14] In 2019 the planning rejection was overturned on appeal.