Matthew Lawrence is an information professional currently based in Providence, Rhode Island. He has also worked as a freelance art writer, editor, and public programmer.
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Recent Publications
General Idea at National Gallery of Canada (Archivaria, PDF)
hernán jourdan at Dirt Palace
Also…
Co-founded by Matthew Lawrence in 2010, Headmaster is visual art journal featuring original contemporary art and writing projects. It has been featured in publications including Vice, It’s Nice That, and Rhode Island Monthly.
Now published occasionally, Headmaster exhibits at art book fairs across North America and can be found in bookstores and galleries throughout the world. Headmaster No. 9 was published during the COVID-19 pandemic with financial support from the City of Providence, Department of Art, Culture + Tourism.
Past contributors to Headmaster include Wolfgang Tillmans, Nicholas Galanin, Alexander Chee, Slava Mogutin, Dean Sameshima, Liz Collins, Zena el Khalil, Alan Cumming, Gabriel Martinez, Steve Locke, Steven Frost, Conner Habib and Benjamin Fredrickson.
Scandalous Conduct:
Newport 1919
* with Jason Tranchida
Artist
Archival Researcher
Grant Writer
2019 – Present
At the end of World War I, a Navy-sanctioned raid on homosexual activity in Newport, RI sparked national scandal, when sailors and civilian men alike were targeted in a covert operation against “immoral acts”.
Scandalous Conduct / Newport 1919 is a site-specific installation and public events series commemorating the Newport Naval Scandal of 1919–20. It is funded in part by grants received from Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, Brown Arts Institute, and the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Newport County.
Law and Order Party
Editor
Event Organizer
Awards Show Host
2015–2020
Naively named for a political party that existed in Rhode Island decades before the Civil War, Law and Order Party was a weekly newsletter featuring writing about visual art, film, theatre, music, and literature in Rhode Island. It ran for 262 weeks and ended in September 2020, when Lawrence began his studies at McGill.
The newsletter had over 2,500 regular subscribers and featured annual events including a March Madness of local restaurants, an annual live awards show (The Dorrys), and the region’s most thorough Summer Guide.