Matthews acted as co-curator of the international travelling exhibition ‘A Sort of Night to the Mind, A Kind of Night for Our Thoughts: Illusion and Materiality in Contemporary Painting’ (2009). His role included selecting the artworks, securing the touring venues, and designing and editing the exhibition catalogue, including commissioning and translating texts by Moyra Derby, Beth Harland and Ian Hunt. The project emerged from specific interests concerning the ‘materiality’ of painting; formative research identified broad and contrasting approaches to surface application, media, materials and process. After its initial run at the Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury, the exhibition toured to Arch 402 Gallery, London (May–June 2011) and to Artary Galerie, Stuttgart (November–December 2011).
Critical developments in painting in the 20th century cultivated by Bauhaus artists Johannes Itten and Oskar Schlemmer underpinned the curatorial discourse of the exhibition and were a key factor in the show’s tour to Germany in 2011. The exhibition identified a group comprising 23 UK-based contemporary practitioners who exemplify a current state of painting within the UK and whose practices overtly explore ideas of materiality and illusion. The exhibition included some of the UK’s most celebrated contemporary painters, including Nigel Cooke, Varda Caivano, Phillip Allen and Phoebe Unwin.
The exhibition was reviewed by Jackie Wullschlager in the Financial Times, June 2011 and by Georg Leisten in Stuttgarter Zeitung, November 2011. Matthews gave a curator’s talk at Herbert Read Gallery, Canterbury (2009) and at Arch 402 Gallery, London (2011). Funding for the exhibition was received from Artary Galerie, Stuttgart and Arch 402 Gallery, London, with further support from Southampton University and University for the Creative Arts.