Gordon Matta-Clark: The Beginning of Trees and the End

Born in New York in 1943, Gordon Matta-Clark is widely considered one of the most influential artists working in the 1970s. He was a key contributor to the activity and growth of the New York art world in SoHo from the late 1960s until his untimely death in 1978. His practice introduced new and radical modes of physically exploring and subverting urban architecture, and some of his most well-known projects involved laboriously cutting holes into floors of abandoned buildings or, as with Splitting (1974), slicing a suburban villa in two. Briony Fer is an art historian who has written extensively on modern and contemporary art. Her research interests have consistently moved between the history of the avant-gardes and the work of contemporary artists, including Gabriel Orozco, Roni Horn, David Batchelor, and Tacita Dean. Her books include On Abstract Art (1997), The Infinite Line (2004), and Eva Hesse: Studiowork (2009). She has also organized exhibitions of Eva Hesse's studiowork as well as, most recently, an exhibition of the work of Gabriel Orozco, accompanied by a monograph Gabriel Orozco: thinking in circles (2013). In spring 2014, she was Kirk Varnedoe Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York. She is Professor of History of Art at University College London and a Fellow of the British Academy. Jessamyn Fiore is a New York-based curator and writer as well as the co-director of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark. She is the curator of the Jean-Paul Najar Foundation opening in Dubai in November 2015. She received an MA in contemporary art theory, practice, and philosophy from The National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2009. Exhibitions curated include 112 Greene Street: The Early Years (1970-1974), David Zwirner, New York (2011), which led to her editing the exhibition catalogue; Gordon Matta-Clark: Above and Below, David Zwirner, New York (2013); and II Machines: Clive Murphy & Trevor Tweeton, Knockdown Center, Queens (2015). Her original one-act play, Blast from The Past, based on the writings of Robert Smithson and Matta-Clark, was published in 2014. Artist Sarah Sze lives and works in New York. She has a BA from Yale University, 1991 and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, 1997. In 2013, Sze represented the United States at the 55th Venice Biennale. She has had major solo exhibitions at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; MUDAM, Luxembourg; Asia Society, New York; Malmo Konsthall, Sweden; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Sze is a 2003 John and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow.