Matthew Stone is one of Britain’s most important young artists, both in terms of his personal practice and as a catalyst for some of London’s best group efforts, and has contributed to the life of i-D as a DJ, performer and provider of still images since 2006. A 2004 graduate of the Camberwell College of Arts, Matthew founded the artists’ collective !WOWOW!, organising guerrilla art exhibitions and throwing London’s most notorious and decadent squat parties. While also providing musical and muse services to his friend Gareth Pugh, Matthew converted a first-class degree in painting to founding a movement he calls Optimism As Cultural Rebellion – using collaborative activity, film, performance, sculpture and shamanism to invert 20th-century nihilism into a more life-affirming form of creativity. Named as Britain’s most influential artist under 30 by the Sunday Times, and listed as one of music’s most fearless by NME because of his video work for S.C.U.M and These New Puritans, his future plans include interactive billboard art and moving image production with Warp Films.
