Matthew Barney

born 1967

Biography

Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American contemporary artist and film director who works in the fields of sculpture, film, photography and drawing. His works explore connections among geography, biology, geology and mythology as well as themes of conflict and failure. His early pieces were sculptural installations combined with performance and video. Between 1994 and 2002, he created The Cremaster Cycle, a series of five films described by Jonathan Jones in The Guardian as "one of the most imaginative and brilliant achievements in the history of avant-garde cinema." He is also known for Drawing Restraint 9 (2005) and River of Fundament (2014), as well as his past relationship with Icelandic musician Björk.

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Artworks

Matthew Barney Cremaster 5

1997
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Matthew Barney Ottoshaft

1992

Film and audio

Playlist

MixTate: Claude Speeed on Matthew Barney

Berlin-based producer Claude Speeed takes inspiration from Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 5

Features

Left Right

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Extending bodies

Lisa Le Feuvre

How artists have explored and utilised prosthetic technologies both to satirise humanity and help in the quest to expand the …
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Now is for ever, again: The everyday

Francesco Bonami

From Gabriel Orozco’s exhibition of yoghurt pot lids to Rirkrit Tiravanija’s transformation of a gallery into a kitchen to serve …
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Where the wild things are: Animals

Massimiliano Gioni

When Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping was forced to expel the beasties that inhabited his Theater of the World he …
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The museum of tomorrow

Hans Ulrich Obrist

Cedric Price said in 2003, ‘A twenty-first century museum will utilise calculated uncertainty and conscious incompleteness to produce a catalyst …
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But is it installation art?

Claire Bishop

What does the term ‘installation art’ mean? Does it apply to big dark rooms that you stumble into to watch …
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The legacy of a myth maker: Joseph Beuys

Francesco Bonami

Joseph Beuys is considered by some as the most important of the post-war period – a sculptor, performance artist, teacher …
Interview

Artist project: Matthew Barney

James Lingwood and Hans Ulrich Obrist

Perhaps the most complex work to have emerged in the last ten years, Matthew Barney’s sculpture, installations and five Cremaster …