ABOUT US

Matthew de Pulford is a curator and visual artist based in Kent and London. Since 2006 he has focused on curating with a particular interest in commissioning projects that enter into dialogue with the specificities of their settings.

In summer 2011 he completed a curatorial residency at the Herbert Read Gallery,Canterbury, where he facilitated the 2010-11 programme, curated The Other Workspace – an exhibition in two parts, organised The Role of Gallery Spaces within Educational Institutions seminar and jointly curated The Jester Curator Symposiumwith Kate Phillimore (Whitstable Biennale) and Sian McMillan (Stour Valley Arts).

From 2009-10, he was the recipient of the first curatorial bursary at Crate, Margate. Whilst there he developed a year-long programme of exhibitions and events entitledBad Translation. This incorporated the following exhibitions: Dirt Cheap Flights to Classy Paradise (James Howard, 2009), Formosa (Juneau Projects, 2009),Translating: Chapter 2 (Juan Cruz and Naama Yuria, 2009), History of a Time to Come(S Mark Gubb and Road Kill Zine, 2010), The Absent Collector (Lucy Harrison, 2010) and Lacuna (Tom Duggan, 2010).

Since 2006 he worked, first as curator, then as co-director, at LIMBO, Margate. LIMBO is an artist-led organisation which focuses on the town of Margate as a filter through which established notions of high culture can be re-examined. Notable projects include Dead Season-Live Art, curated by Paul Hazelton and Art Lands on Alien Landscape, curated by Jim Lockey and Katy Norton. Prior to this he curatedAndy Warhol’s TV, which stemmed from the discovery of Andy Warhol’s television set in a Margate second-hand shop.

As an artist, his practice focuses primarily on painting. In 2004 his work was selected for theJohn Moores 23 Painting Prize, and for the Turner Contemporary Open in 2009. Other group exhibitions include Acid Drops and Sugar Candy at Transition Gallery, 2005, and The Portal, Ozlem in 2009.

Sian McMillan is a curator and artist currently based in London, UK. She completed her studies at ECU’s School of Communications and Contemporary Art in Perth, Australia 2007. Sian has a background in performance and installation and has been involved as both artist and organizer in Western Australias’ Artrage Festival and the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth. In 2008 she was selected as curator of the visual arts exhibition for National Youth Week Australia, at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts.

In 2010 Sian McMillan was selected for the CD:EK (Curatorial Development in East Kent) bursary and undertook an 18mnth placement as part of the curatorial team at Stour Valley Arts.  During this time she co-curated (with Dan Howard-Birt) Lee Patterson’s Elemental Fields exhibition and hosted and chaired the Spaces of Mediation seminar.  In May 2011, together with Kate Phillimore and Matthew De Pulford, Sian McMillan curated The Jester-Curator symposium.

July 2011 through to March 2012  Sian was Gallery Coordinator at Stour Valley Arts. Currently, Sian writes for online journal AQNB and continues to work collaboratively with Phillimore and DePulford as Trifarious Projects.

Kate Phillimore is currently Assistant Curator at the Whitstable Biennale where she runs the Satellite Membership programme. She has worked as Creative Programmes Manager at the Creative Intelligence Agency, and has been working with Publish and Be Damned since 2008. She has additionally been employed as a researcher for Victoria & Albert Museum Publishing and Royal Collection Publishing. Kate continues to work with Trifarious Projects organising contemporary art events and exhibitions including The Jester Curator Symposium in May 2011. Kate received her BA in Literature at UC Santa Cruz in 2003 and MA in Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts in 2008.