mattsamlax [at] gmail [dot] com
Matthew Lax is an experimental filmmaker, artist and writer. As one of four quadruplets, Lax often collaborates with non-actors and the “everyday ensembles” found within families, lovers, hobby clubs, athletic teams, and kink communities. Working between documentary and narrative, the resulting films extrapolate from the participants' real-life relationships and Lax’s own autobiography to explore group behavior, disability, animality and queerness.
These themes continue in Lax’s writing and organizational practice: revealing the narratives behind production processes and exhibition-making through long-term projects based in collaboration and exchange.
Lax’s films and video installations have screened and been exhibited at venues including Viennale (Austria), IHME Contemporary (Helsinki), Rencontres Internationales (Paris/Berlin), MIX New York and MIX Brasil (São Paulo), table (Chicago), Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG), Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA), , Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse, NY), REDCAT, LA Film Forum, Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, The Drawing Center (New York), and CROSSROADS (San Francisco), among others.
Lax’s organizational projects include those held at Anthology Film Archives (NY), Fellows of Contemporary Art (LA), and Human Resources LA. Lax’s writing has appeared in print and online publications including MARCH Journal, Texte Zur Kunst, Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), ArtPractical, and Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles (CARLA), as well catalog contribution with the Lawndale Art Center (Houston, TX) and a limited edition zine with Inga Books (Chicago). Lax is a recipient of a 2024 Lightning Fund Grant from Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
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