Matt's identity

INTERVIEWED IN THE MEETING ROOM AT THE SAATCHI GALLERY, CHELSEA, LONDON, UK ON 20/10/2011

Name: Matt Gee

Nationality: English

Current Location: London - UK

Artistic role: scupltor

Current work: gallery assistant at The Saatchi gallery/sales assistant

Contact details: http://www.matthew-gee.com/

What is the meaning of being an emerging artist, What implications the term “emerging” has and how can the art market influence the artist’s career and life path?  

Its definitely a slow and gradual process, and rarely would seem to be as a single break. It is also a fluctuating process i think, with peaks and troffs and so in that sense it can be like ice skating without ice skates rather than finding a logical way to emerge on to the art market. There are now art markets for so called emerging artists, but in the end it comes down to the individuals interpretation of when one has emerged.
Personally with the gallery I work in (The Saatchi Gallery) I find there is no direct correlation to the gallery in terms of the art making, more a sense of elitism.
First of all, I do not believe that finding your own identity within art can allow you to 'emerge'. As if you are an artist who has created something genius and original but reside in an underground bunker then you will not be visible and anything that emerges needs to be visible. So i think the process of emerging consists of skill and luck in the sense of sniffing out the right opportunities while making great art work. My main struggle is money, which then becomes time.
I think the word 'emerging' is a bit old, and it should be something like art-que? it seems like artists que until they reach a certain level of maturity in terms of age and actual experience before they are truly considered. So maybe the term is simply a way of defining a time period in an artists career.
For me it is psychological, i have even been in an exhibition titled the 'emergent art show'. The word has been used so many times that we start to believe it, and even after that we use it ourselves.
But of course in terms of the commercial side of things it is important for the dealers: If you had 2 grand to spend would you spend it on a painting by an emerging artist, of a superstar, famous artist? But whether this is 'fact' is all down to the individual, am i an art student, or an artist? etc etc. Because it is so subjective and down to the individual, like most art debates, it leaves us asking questions rather than coming up with resolutions.

Matt's works