Matt Kavanagh is a London based, sculptor, maker and designer. With a background in furniture & product design and a history of developing products with complex organic forms, particularly during his design partnership, Diplomat which saw dozens of designs launched by European brands. His focus is on innovation and experimentation, leveraging a deep knowledge of craft processes and diverse materials to explore ideas. His practice is often based loosely around the typologies of furniture, product & lighting.
Work is predominantly solo, with occasional collaborations with like-minded artists, including Translocated Making with the Royal College of Art, Research Degree program.
Innovation through craft
Sustainability has been a recurring theme throughout his career and in 2019 Kavanagh initiated a project using salvaged nitrous oxide canisters, which was launched as NOS SPHERE in 2020. As well as creating a functional light-based sculpture, it also reflected on the motivation behind the discarded canisters - “a cloud of highs”. This chandelier was featured in the Financial Times and many publications and went on to win the prestigious European Product Design award and the Build Back Better Green award.
Recent work includes an expanding collection of functional timber sculptures made from fallen hardwood trees, much collected from across South London and embedded with the geo-coordinates of the tree. The process creates geographic relics transformed through craft into enduring functional forms that link memory, location and craftsmanship. Both a homage to the constantly evolving natural history of the urban environment and a testament to the enduring dialogue between maker and material.