Artist Talk: Rene Matić in conversation with Mark Sealy

Rene Matić’s work is laced with the urgency of presence. It’s an unapologetic practice: a reckoning with identity, kinship, friendships and the spectral, racial, and contested politics of what constitutes Britishness. Rene Matić and Mark Sealy will discuss the familiar and unfamiliar loss history, location, race and gender, and ideas concerning love. They will also touch upon the upcoming edition of Rene's Flags publication, as well as Rene's participation in the 2025 Turner Prize exhibition.

This conversation will be followed by a drinks reception.

The event is free to attend but you must register for a ticket.

Rene Matić (b. 1997, Peterborough, UK) is a London-based artist and writer whose practice spans photography, film, and sculpture, converging in a meeting place they describe as "rude(ness)" - an evidencing and honouring of the in-between. Matić riffs on a documentary, diaristic style of photography, with snapshots of everyday moments and poetic juxtapositions, which are then used to create installations, grouping images to surreptitiously bring out buried tensions and paradoxes.

Recent solo exhibitions include Turner Prize 2025, Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, UK (2025); Baby, Chapter NY, New York, US (2025); Idols Lovers Mothers Friends, Arcadia Missa, London, UK (2025); AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH, CCA Berlin, Berlin, DE (2024); Rene Matić/Oscar Murillo JAZZ, Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier, Vienna, AT (2024); a girl for the living room, Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, UK (2023); upon this rock, Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna, AT (2023), upon this rock, South London Gallery, London, UK (2022), soul time, Studio Voltaire, London UK (2022), flags for countries that don’t exist but bodies that do, Arcadia Missa, London, UK (2021) among others.

Image Credits:

©Rene Matić, 2025. Courtesy the Artist and Arcadia Missa, London.

Dr. Mark Sealy is the Executive Director of Autograph (since 1991) and Professor of Photography, Rights and Representation at University of the Arts London – London College of Communication.

Sealy’s work explores the intersection of art, photography, social change, identity politics, race, and human rights. He earned his PhD from Durham University, England, and has contributed extensively to the field through writing for leading international photographic journals, producing numerous artist publications, curating major exhibitions, and commissioning photographers and filmmakers worldwide. He has received several awards for his outstanding contributions to the arts.

In addition to his academic and curatorial work, Sealy has served as an advisor to prominent cultural institutions, including Tate, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Art Fund, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, World Press Photo, and the International Centre of Photography, New York.

Sealy’s critical writings on photography have been widely published. His recent book include: Decolonising the Camera: Photography in Racial Time (2019), Photography: Race, Rights and Representation (2022) and A Lens on Liberation: Photography as Resistance (2025).

He currently is Artistic Director for the Hamburg Triennial of Photography 2026.

Image Credits:

Credit Shona Illingworth

• Please note that attendance to the event is restricted to persons aged 18 or above.
• Unfortunately, there is no step free access to the room where the talk is taking place, we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Sotheby's Institute of Art