Tailsliding

This show, curated by Colin Ledwith and Stephen Hepworth, toured Europe: Bergen Centre for Contemporary Art; Vilnius Centre of Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tallin; Brno House of Arts, Czech Republic; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; New Museum of Modern Art, Salamanca, Centre of Contemporary Art, Milan; Krakow Bunkier Sztuki, Poland.

The curators, Colin Ledwith of the British Council and Stephen Hepworth, independent curator, intended the touring show to contextualise what was identified as a new and vital emerging influence in current British contemporary art, Europe and beyond. The show was noteworthy in signalling a move towards an engagement with different methodologies, an avoidance of categorisation, a rejection of allegiances combined with a romantic and exuberant embrace of making.

Central to the premise of the show is the assertion that the participating artists have adopted less agenda driven strategies in a conscious move away from the personal agenda’s and social motivations of previous generations in particular the ‘Sensation’ generation of the YBA’s.
Significantly the show also toured extensively to parts of Europe that are still developing their own artistic infrastructure and until recently have had little exposure to western contemporary art especially from the UK.

Matt Franks was born in Yorkshire in 1970. After graduating from Goldsmith's College with an MA Fine Art in 2000, his first solo show 'transcendent plastic infinite' - for which he inverted traditional floor-based sculpture by placing it on the ceiling - was held at Tate Britain's Art Now space in 2002. Between 2001 - 03, his work was shown as part of 'Tailsliding', a British Council international touring exhibition featuring twelve young British artists 'currently creating eclectic work within the conventions of painting and sculpture'; for 'Into My World' (2004), a showcase for recent British sculpture at the newly re-opened Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut, USA, Franks was invited to take part in the associated Weir Farm Residency programme to produce a specially commissioned new body of work for the exhibition.
Other recent exhibitions include 'Metropolis Rise: New Art from London' (ICA, London; Shanghai and Beijing, 2006), a major touring show supported by the British Council and Arts Council England; '8x8x8' at The Soap Factory, Minneapolis, London and New York (2006); and the Contemporary Art Society's annual selling exhibition, 'ARTfutures 2007', Bloomberg Space, London.

Franks' sculptural installations often feature assemblages of neon-coloured perspex and large, smoothly-shaped and hand carved blocks of styrofoam to produce bizarre and humorous forms. His first public installation for an exterior site in London, 'Fooooom!!!' - a three metre high, white exploding cloud - was recently on show at The Economist Plaza, London, commissioned by the Contemporary Art Society (24 January - 9 March 2007). Matt Franks is represented by Houldsworth Gallery, London.

• http://www.mattfranks.net
• http://www.metropolis-rise.co.uk
• http://www.metropolis-rise.co.uk/shangha...
• http://www.tempcontemp.co.uk
• http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitio...