Matt Ager: FEELS2NICE: Curated by Francesca Gavin

Matt Ager makes sculptures from domestic materials and found objects. He is particularly interested in fluidly composing works that address mimicry, design, and architecture. Agers’s belief that objects and textures carry particular identities is continuously explored and made visible through his practice. His primary focus is ‘making’ as a way of thinking. Through using a combination of existing materials alongside simple and sophisticated ways of fabrication, the work builds, nurtures and embodies a social dialogue. If you first looked at his works’ material lists it would be unlikely to imagine their outcome; shoe laces, door stops, formica, steel, tabletops, MDF, all often ‘found’—his sculptures are elegant, a seemingly effortless bonding of high with low, kitsch with class.

Ager’s work is about this re-definition; it usually includes the use of the assisted ready-made and builds narratives around social status and taste, constructing a crafted work out of something that may initially appear mundane.

The notion of the ‘unknown’ in how we develop relationships with things and people is mirrored in the making of the work. Not knowing how things might end up. Reworking, replacing, and remoulding is integral.

Matt Ager (b. 1985, London) graduated from the Royal Academy Schools in 2015 and holds a BA in sculpture from Camberwell College of Art. Exhibitions include: Stampede, Horse & Pony Fine Art, Berlin (2021); Clay TM, TJ Boulting, London (2020); Usable Space Gallery, Milwaukee, USA (2019); Bare Elegance, Lungley, London (2019); OH I KNOW WHY, Sundy, London (2018); High Gallery, Poznan, Poland (2018), Sleeping Procession curated by Sean Steadman and Gabriel Hartley, CASS Sculpture Foundation, (2017); Closer to the Veg, London (2016); GUSTO Studio Leigh, London (2016); Maybe Your Lens is Scratched, Averard Hotel, London (2016); Either Those Curtains, Fold (2016); Wrongguns, Agency Agency, Brussels (2016); Is it Heavy or Is it Light, Assembly Point, London (2016); Sunday School #11 curated by Amanprit Sandhu (2015).

Francesca Gavin is an author, editor, and curator based between London and Vienna. She was the curator of the exhibition Mushrooms at Somerset House and co-curated the Manifesta11 biennial. She has written eight books of art and contemporary culture, is the Editor of LIMBO magazine and a contributing editor at Financial Times How to Spend It Magazine, Kaleidoscope, Twin, and Beauty Papers. Her monthly radio show Rough Version has been running on NTS.live for five years, looking at the intersection of art and music. Francesca has written for a large number of publications including Blau, Newsweek, Cura, Vogue, Mousse, GQ, Blueprint, wallpaper*, Frieze and Art Review. She was the founding curator of the Soho House group, and has curated shows at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Site Shefflield and MU.

Ballon Rouge began as a nomadic gallery in September of 2017. In our first two years they put up exhibitions in Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Brussels, Sao Paulo, Paris, and New York with our ‘collective’ members (curators from each of those cities). In March of 2019 they made Brussels our home city, inaugurating our permanent space. While they will continue to do occasional shows abroad alongside our collective members, our primary location is now Brussels. Besides they own exhibitions, the space in Brussels sometimes hosts invited international galleries to show with them in exchange for a show of ours at theirs - a further continuation of our ethos of collaboration and collectivity. So far they have collaborated or will soon collaborate with Hannah Barry Gallery (London); Melange (Cologne); Galerist (Istanbul); Gallery Artbeat, (Tbilisi); the Pill (Istanbul); Pi Artworks (Istanbul, London); Vitrine (London, Basel). In September, 2021 Pi Artworks was invited to their space in Brussels and exhibition artist Ana Cvorovic.