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
Press
- 2023 The Saturday Paper
- 2022 The Guardian
- 2021 Photographic Museum of Humanity
- 2020 The Guardian
- 2020 Directors Notes
- 2019 AnotherMag
- 2018 The Heavy Collective
- 2018 FotoRoom
- 2018 C41