Coming Up:
Loop 2026 - Bankside, Blackfrairs, London (September 8 - 13, 2026)
Teesside University Graduate Showcase - Mima, Middlesbrough (Sept/Oct 2026)
Par Avion II - APT Gallery, Deptford, London (February 2027)
OUT: Deptford - APT Gallery, Deptford, London (March/April 2027)
CV
Contact:
Email: m.j.emery94@gmail.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mattyemery/
Education:
MA Fine Art: Printmaking – Distinction/First (A), Camberwell UAL (2022-2023)
BA Fine Art – First Class Honours Degree, Teesside University (2019-2022)
Level 3 Diploma in Fabrication and Welding –Merit - SWDT Training (2014-2017)
Awards:
John Purcell Paper Award - Camberwell College of Arts Degree Show (2023)
Nominated for the Clifford Chance Postgraduate Printmakers Award (2023)
Nominated for The Freeland’s Painting Prize (2023)
Awarded a fellowship in digital printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts (2024)
Artwork (Spent and Consumed) acquired by UAL Archives (2023)
Exhibited:
COLLECTIVISM - The Bomb Factory, Marylebone, London (May/June 2026)
Par Avion - Neurotitan Gallery (Berlin 2026)
Out: St Leonards - Unit 2 (St Leonards-on-Sea 2026)
Critical Edge 5 - ASC Handbag Factory, Vauxhall (London 2025)
From the Ground Up - Lewisham Arthouse, New Cross (London 2024)
"and you would have to believe it" - Copeland Gallery, Peckham (London 2024)
What We Bring to the Table - Safehouse Peckham (London 2024)
Royal Birmingham Society of Arts Print Prize - RBSA Gallery (Birmingham 2024)
Clifford Chance Postgraduate Printmaker’s Awards - Canary Wharf (London 2023)
Making Conversation - APT Gallery, Deptford (London 2023)
Small but Mighty, Royal Society of Printmakers, Bankside Gallery, Southwark (London 2023)
Synchronize. Wilson Rd, Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham (London 2023)
MA Fine Art SHOW Camberwell College of Arts, Peckham (London 2023)
Pineapple Black Summer Show - Pineapple Black Gallery (Middlesbrough 2023)
Woolwich Director’s Cut (2023)
Spectrum - Bargehouse OXO Tower Wharf, Southbank (London 2023)
Forces of The Small - Filet Gallery, Hoxton (London 2023)
Featured in:
Printmaking Today Winter - Issue 128
Artists Responding To - Issue 8
Artist Statement/About
I am a London-based artist and printmaker from Middlesbrough. My practice explores the relationship between power, labour and inequality, examining how political and economic systems shape the conditions in which people live and work.
Working somewhere within the expanded field of printmaking, my work combines print, painting and industrial materials including plaster, steel and found objects. I often emboss mesh and scrap metal into the surface of my work, creating physical impressions that reflect pressure, strain and repetition. Works are often characterised by surfaces marked by fatigue, decay and erosion, drawing inspiration from deteriorating walls, weathered billboards, neglected, murky corners and streets layered with posters, trash and the traces of everyday life.
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Through these processes, I explore how dominant ideas shape the way we understand power and wealth, often presenting inequality as a natural outcome while obscuring the wider social and economic conditions that influence people’s lives. My work depicts how these conditions are experienced by the worker, exploring themes of labour, fatigue and the physical and psychological pressures created by unequal systems. The material degradation within the work becomes a reflection of these wider social and political conditions.
Before studying BA Fine Art at Teesside University, I completed an apprenticeship in fabrication and welding and worked as a fabricator for five years in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. After graduating from Teesside, I went on to complete a master’s degree in Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts in 2023. During my time at Camberwell, my work Spent and Consumed was acquired by the UAL Archives and Special Collections Centre and upon graduation, I was awarded a fellowship in digital printmaking for the following year. Currently I work as a printer at Warner Road Studios, where we utilise intaglio and relief methods to build and edition prints. I am also part of Critical Edge Collective; a group of artists with a focus on transparency, innovation, and collaboration and I have exhibited with them since January 2024.
At the beginning of 2026, I organised and curated a group exhibition bringing together 29 artists whose practices push the boundaries of contemporary printmaking. Hosted at Unit 2, an artist-led space in St-Leonards, the exhibition ran for two weeks and transformed the space into an exploration of various approaches to printmaking. Recently we successfully applied for a slot with APT Gallery in Deptford (2027) to host a follow-up iteration of OUT with the idea that this becomes an ongoing project which gives printmakers who work more in the expanded field of print, something to work towards, as opposed to confining their work to the framed, shop-like gallery displays that seem to dominate the print scene in London.