Biography

Matthew Thorne (b.1993 Adelaide, South Australia) is a filmmaker and artist whose work explores the Australian landscape and its people through a combination of film, photography, and reenactment.

His latest short film Marungka Tjalatjunu (2023) made with Yankunytjatjara man Derik Lynch, premiered at Berlinale 2023 where it received the Silver Bear Jury Prize. It was also nominated for the Documentary Australia Prize at Sydney Film Festival. Other short and mid-length films include The Sand That Ate The Sea (2020) about the remote Opal mining community of Andamooka SA, and GAIB (2019) a short documentary essay film made with the community of Batu Keras, West Java.

Other works include photography for Nick Cave and the Badseed’s album Ghosteen (2019), and Justin Kurzel’s film True History of The Kelly Gang (2019). He also contributed to Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant (2017) as photographer and additional director, and worked with Glendyn Ivin to create the title sequence for his TV series Gallipoli (2015).

Matthew has published two books, For My Father (2018) and Jingo was born in the slum (2021). His photos also accompany the Spanish language translation of Kenneth Cook's Wake In Fright (2021) by Sajalín editores.

Recently Matthew’s work has been exhibited at GAG Projects / Greenaway Art Gallery (2023), the Canberra Museum and Gallery alongside their Sidney Nolan collection (2022), National Portrait Gallery of Australia (2021), National Portrait Gallery London (2020), National Museum of Australia (2020), and the Art Gallery of South Australia (2020), and screened at Berlinale (2023), Sydney Film Festival (2023), and Melbourne International Film Festival (2023).

Matthew was also recipient of the Adelaide Film Festival & Samstag Gallery of Art Commission (2022), Australian Directors Guild Award / Music Video (2021), and nominated for the Olive Cotton Award (2023), National Portrait Prize, Australia (2021), and Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, UK (2020).

Matthew currently lives and works between Athens, Berlin, and Australia.

Solo Exhibitions

  • 2023 Out the back of beyond
    GAGProjects / Greenaway Art Gallery, Adelaide
  • 2022 Jingo was born in the slum
    (with the Sidney Nolan collection)
    Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra
  • 2019 The Sand That Ate The Sea
    Sun Studios, Sydney
  • 2019 Gaib
    Tinning Street Presents, Melbourne
  • 2019 The Sand That Ate The Sea
    222 Gallery, Melbourne
  • 2017 For my father
    m2 Gallery, Sydney

Group Exhibitions

  • 2022 Australian Life
    Hyde Park, Sydney
  • 2022 Timeless
    The Hawke Centre, University of South Australia, Adelaide
  • 2022 Salon
    Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
  • 2021 Living Memory: National Portrait Prize
    National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
  • 2021 A New Beginning
    Photographic Museum of Humanity, Binario Centrale, Bologna
  • 2021 Salon
    Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
  • 2020 Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize
    National Portrait Gallery, London
  • 2020 Love In The Time of COVID19
    Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
  • 2019 Click
    Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne
  • 2019 Clip
    Centre for Photography, Perth
  • 2019 Queer Kulture
    KAKE, Berlin
  • 2018 Salon
    Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne

Publications

  • 2021 Jingo Was Born in the Slum / Jane & Jeremy (UK)
  • 2020 Stories Journal / Australian Photography Awards
  • 2019 The Sand That Ate The Sea, Album / Luke Howard (Mercury KX / Universal Music)
  • 2018 For My Father / Palm* (UK) / ISBN: 978-0-9934450-4-0