Matts Leiderstam (b. 1956, lives and works in Stockholm) holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the Malmö Art Academy, where he also teaches.
Matts Leiderstam’s work has often started from his experiences and desires related to classical paintings hanging in museums. To know more, he habitually repainted them, or made another form of what he calls ‘after-images’. He did this in order to understand their compositions, but also to see how we as viewers today experience them—namely with the accumulated stories attached to the history of these paintings. In our digital age, these paintings are shared as images on the screen and seen many times, thereby losing histories and acquiring unexpected new stories. In Leiderstam’s brain, all these images and experiences leave traces—not only from behind the screen, but also from his formative years of producing the ‘after-images’.
Leiderstam’s recent shows include: Lunds Konsthall (SE) 2017; 11th Shanghai Biennale (CN) 2016; Fondazione Prada, Milan (IT) 2015; Berlin Biennale (DE) 2014; Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo (ME) 2013; Witte de With Rotterdam (NL) 2011; and the Göteborg Biennial (SE) 2011. 2010 included solo shows at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (DE); the Malmö Art Museum (SE); Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (AT); and the Turku Art Museum Turku (FI). In 2008 Leiderstam exhibited at the Salon Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade) and 2007 at the Badischer Kunstverein (DE). His project Grand Tour was shown at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall (SE) 2005, after which it traveled to Dundee Contemporary Arts (UK), Göteborgs Konsthall (SE), and Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein.
His work is held in many major collections internationally. These include the Bonnier Foundation, Stockholm (SE), The Deutsche Bank Collection, Erasmus University, Rotterdam (NL), Huis Marseille – Museum for Photography, Amsterdam (NL), Iziko – South African National Gallery, Cape Town (SA), Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz (LI), Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm (SE), Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö (SE), Moderna Museet, Stockholm (SE), MoCAB – Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade (SRB), Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (MX), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (US), Seattle Art Museum, Seattle (US), and Statens Konstråd, Stockholm (SE).
http://www.mattsleiderstam.com/works/