Volume VIII – Andrew Gilbert & Zhuang Ruizhe
Volume VIII – Andrew Gilbert & Zhuang Ruizhe

November 2024

The Sun will never set on the Leek Phone Empire – Leek Phone sponsored Contemporary Art Conversations

In the autumn of 2023, Andrew Gilbert traveled to Hangzhou, China, as representative of Leek Phone™ to explore potential business deals, establish new trade routes, seek territory for founding Emperor Andrew Instant Coffee plantations, and participate in the BY ART MATTERS artist residency program.

Volume VIII – Andrew Gilbert & Zhuang Ruizhe

Sperling

all exhibits

Mathew Hale: Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life)

10.07.2026–5.09.2026

Artist talk: Julie Mehretu in conversation with Mathew Hale about the FACTS OF LIFE drawings, Wednesday, September 2, 7 pm, at the gallery. RSVP: mail@sperling-munich.com

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This summer at Sperling, we are proud to present Mathew Hale’s new suite of free drawings*, FACTS OF LIFE, in its entirety. The four hundred pictures will be pinned up directly on the gallery walls allowing the visitor to enjoy them all at once, and echoing the creative environment of Hale’s studio.

Facts of Life are a series of spontaneously generated images made by an adult in relation to their childhood. Emptying his head, the artist begins to draw, and this is what has appeared; not truth, or innocence, but beautiful and disturbing surprises grown in the soil of truth and innocence.

To quote the artist Bruno Schultz: “To you I can reveal the secrets of these drawings. I always doubted that it was I who drew them. Sometimes they seem like unintentional plagiarisms. Something that was whispered to me, that reached my ear … as though a stranger had used my inspiration for purposes unknown, for I confess I have discovered the ‘real thing’.”

A publication entitled FACTS OF LIFE: Drawn from forgetfulness by Mathew (and Mummy), featuring texts by Rye Dag Holmboe and Julie Mehretu, is forthcoming from X Artists’ Books (Los Angeles/Berlin).

* “Free drawing” is the term coined by the psychoanalyst, writer and artist Marion Milner in her book On Not Being Able to Paint, when theorizing her practice of sitting down to draw with no prior image in her head, only to be led by her hand, eye and mind to produce something that was naturally significant, because not preconceived. Mathew Hale was Marion Milner’s assistant and friend from 1990–1998, the last eight years of her life.

Press

  • Artforum
  • Art Viewer
  • Contemporary Art Library
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, Spontaneous Generation (Facts of Life), 2026, Sperling, Munich, photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Driverless, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 3 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) EXIT, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) J A Mother's Pride, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) lying, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) my favorite lover is GRANNY, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Mummy at work, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) My mother sees that her mother has grown pregnant again, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) No one was looking at my conception, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Orinoco window, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) The moment I understood luck, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Thinking, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Witnessed from behind the vaginal wall, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Whale, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) one two three, one, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Me looking at Mummy, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) I catch Dad, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) her hair, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) I watch Mummy Meeting Tony, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) KODAK, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Adultery, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Debutants Ball, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) e,n,t,r,a,n,c,e, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Dune du Pilat,  Côte d'Argent, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Ingrid Rosellini, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) I saw Laundry Room, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) I AM Their Grandparents, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Anchor, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) bicycle seat, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Conception: The baby sees, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Dad touches it for the first time, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, Multiple DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Seconds, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Mummy's big white towel is warm., 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Knees smelled diffent, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) Grandpa surprised by his daughter on TV, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel
Mathew Hale, (Facts of Life) ?, 2026, Sumi ink on drawing paper, 2 DIN A4 sheets (overlapping), photo: Sebastian Kissel