About

Matthew Barney, Photography by Julieta Cervantes
Matthew Barney (b. 1967, San Francisco, California) lives and works in New York. His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions worldwide, including SECONDARY at the Cartier Foundation, Paris in 2024 and REDOUBT, which premiered at the Yale University Art Gallery in 2019, and traveled to the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China. Additional institutional exhibitions include THE CREMASTER CYCLE, organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York in 2004 and traveled to Museum Ludwig, Cologne and Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; DRAWING RESTRAINT 9, organized by the 21st Century Museum for Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan in 2005 and traveled to Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Serpentine Gallery, London; and Kunsthalle Vienna; and RIVER OF FUNDAMENT, organized by Haus der Kunst, Munich in 2014 and traveled to The Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Barney has received several awards including the Aperto prize at the 1993 Venice Biennale; the Hugo Boss Award in 1996; the 2007 Kaiser Ring Award in Goslar, Germany; and the San Francisco International Film Festival’s Persistence of Vision Award in 2011. Barney was named an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2024.
Exhibitions
Publications
Select Press
The 100 Best Artworks of the 21st Century: Matthew Barney, “Cremaster 3,” 2002
ARTnews ↗Andy Battaglia
March 5, 2025
Download PDF ↓How the High-Impact Work of Matthew Barney Influenced 6 Artists
Artnet ↗Janelle Zara
August 12, 2024
Download PDF ↓Athletics Through Film at Matthew Barney’s ‘Secondary’ in New York
Art & Object ↗Katy Diamond Hamer
August 6, 2024
Download PDF ↓6 Must-See Shows to Catch at Museums in Europe This Summer
Artnet ↗Kate Brown
July 10, 2024
Download PDF ↓Let’s get physical! How contemporary artists have embraced athleticism
Art Basel ↗Grace Edquist
July 10, 2024
Download PDF ↓Matthew Barney draws on a sporting horror story with video installation ‘Secondary’
Wallpaper ↗Hili Perlson
July 7, 2024
Download PDF ↓Video