Eva & Franco Mattes

Eva & Franco Mattes are an Italian artist duo living in New York. They were among the first artists to use the internet to create art, and with works like Life Sharing they helped define the medium. Through videos, installations and websites, their work responds to and dissects our contemporary networked condition, always approaching the ethics and politics of life online with a darkly humorous edge.

Their works can be found in the collections of the SFMOMA, Whitney Museum of American Art, Fotomuseum Winterthur, X Museum and the Walker Art Center. Group exhibition highlights include Sharjah Art Foundation (2020); SFMOMA (2019); Athens Biennale (2018); Mori Art Museum (Tokyo, 2018); Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, 2018); Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie (2017); Biennale of Sydney (2016); Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2016); Minneapolis Institute of Arts (2013); Sundance Film Festival (2012); MoMA PS1 (New York, 2009); Performa (New York, 2009-2007); National Art Museum of China (Beijing, 2008); The New Museum (New York, 2005) and Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt, 2002). In 2001 they were among the youngest artists ever included in the Venice Biennale.

Their first survey exhibitions were held at Fondation Phi (Montreal, 2019), and at Fotomuseum Winterthur (Zurich, 2021). Past solo exhibition venues include Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden; Team Gallery (Los Angeles); Postmasters Gallery (New York); Carroll/Fletcher Gallery (London) and Essex Flowers (New York). They are part of the curatorial collective Don't Follow the Wind, a collaborative project that organized an inaccessible exhibition in the Fukushima Exclusion Zone (2015 - present).

The Mattes have received grants from the Whitney Museum (New York); Walker Art Center (Minneapolis); New York Foundation for the Arts and were awarded the New York Prize 2006 from the Italian Academy at Columbia University. They are recipients of the Creative Capital Award (2016), won Rhizome's Prix Net Art (2017) and received the Italian Council grant (2018).

They are faculty members at the MFA Fine Arts Department and the MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department of the School of Visual Arts, New York.