Matt's Gallery announces new Chair of Trustees

We are adopting a new rotating model where an existing Trustee will take on the role of Chair for a period of two years.
Jes Fernie is an independent writer and curator who has been on or Board for four years.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing Chair, Darryl de Prez who has been a Trustee for six years and Chair for three. As Chair, Darryl saw the organisation through a transitional phase as we came out of the Covid pandemic and opened our new space in Nine Elms. As a Trustee he supported us as we fundraised towards that opening and in 2019 marked our 40th anniversary.

Thank you Darryl de Prez for your time, energy and commitment over these important and challenging years, and welcome Jes Fernie as we prepare for the years ahead.

A statement from Jes:

Five things I love about Matt’s Gallery:

1. Director Robin Klassnik (45 years on the job) talks about it as an artwork. The gallery is an artwork.

2. Artists are at the centre of everything the gallery does. Showing at Matt’s Gallery is more like a residency - the relationship that is built up between artist and staff is legendary / incredible.

3. Conversations about the lighting of a single artwork can go on for days.

4. Visitors to the gallery chat with Robin, Tim (Deputy Director), Leïla (Artists & Exhibitions Liaison). It’s a big looping conversation that is built on generosity, curiosity and love.

5. The cacti! They have traveled with Matt’s on its many gallery moves and are now enormous (photo)

I am very happy to be part of the Matt’s Gallery story.

Robin Klassnik would like to add that Jes Fernie is the ideal person to be Chair as she sees her new role as a project.

Our current Trustees are:

Ashleigh Barice, Senior Director, Bernheim Gallery
Abdullahi Bashe, Senior Legal Counsel, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank
Chloe Carroll, Director, Phillida Reid Gallery and former Stanley Picker Trainee, Matt’s Gallery
Gabriel Coxhead, Director of the Estate of Susan Hiller and independent Art Critic, Writer, and Curator
Teresa Grimes, former Director, Tintype Gallery
Robin Klassnik, Director, Matt’s Gallery
Coline Milliard, Executive Editor, Art Basel
Rosie Reed, Artist, and Curator of The Amber Room