Matt Watkins

Matt Watkins is a former founder and director of contemporary art gallery Parafin and a former director of communications and creative director of international gallery Haunch of Venison. He was previously publisher of Tate Etc., establishing the magazine in 2004 alongside editors Bice Curiger and Simon Grant, and art director Cornel Windlin.

Postcard: Bice Curiger

Parafin was established by Matt Watkins and Ben Tufnell in 2014 in London’s Mayfair, and over ten years exhibited more than forty artists, mounting over fifty exhibitions. Representing major artists and estates as well as younger emerging artists, the gallery was committed to curatorial rigour and inventive exhibition programming, working with a broad network of collectors, curators, and institutions to support the careers of the artists it worked with. In addition to artist and client relations Watkins established and oversaw the branding and communications for the gallery, its publishing activities, and acted as the finance and management lead for the business.

Over eight years at Haunch of Venison he led the gallery's communications team helping build a brand that became widely recognised for its high standards of quality and creative approach. Founded in London in 2002, Haunch of Venison expanded to locations in Zurich, Berlin and New York, working with a diverse roster of artists and designers. As a publisher and designer he ran Haunch of Venison’s extensive publishing programme, and produced books with major artists including Richard Long, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella, Giuseppe Penone, and Wim Wenders.