Matthew Buckingham's site-related works including films, videos, drawings, and sculpturestell the untold stories of notable people, examining their lives and communities. For example, the installation Definition, 2000, celebrates and affectionately mocks the achievement of Samuel Johnson, who wrote the first dictionary of the English language between 1746 and 1755. In this installation, a single projected slide shows Johnson's empty, sunlit workroom. The gallery floor is steeply slanted to mimic the workroom's dormer window, while a recorded narrative (read by novelist Patrick McGrath) chronicles Johnson's intellectual exploits.

Buckingham is the 2004 - 2005 Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Fellow. The fellowship includes two month-long visiting artist residencies on the faculty at Washington University School of Art and a Currents exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum. During his October residency, Buckingham taught a seminar at the School of Art while developing his proposal for the upcoming Currents exhibition. He returns to St. Louis in March to install his exhibition and teach the conclusion of the seminar.

For his Currents exhibition, Buckingham focuses on the idea of the clean slate as a model that recurs in the building and rebuilding of St. Louis. He explores the changing face of the city, from its colonial layout to its remaking after the devastating fire of 1849 and numerous tornados to the planned destruction of entire neighborhoods in the 1960s and '70s. Repeated attempts to start over from scratch create disjunctions between sections of St. Louis, although the isolation of certain communities also contributes to their strong senses of identity.

Matthew Buckingham is an American artist based in New York. He recently completed projects for P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York as well as for the magazines Cabinet and October. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Buckingham discusses his work on Thursday, March 31, at 7:00 pm in the Auditorium, with an exhibition preview following the lecture.

Currents 94: Matthew Buckingham is curated by Robin Clark, associate curator of contemporary art, and is on view in Gallery 337 from April 1 through June 12. It is part of a series of exhibitions featuring the work of contemporary artists.

The series is supported by the Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Endowment Fund, which was established to support the exhibition and acquisition of contemporary art at the Art Museum and to support the teaching principles of contemporary art at the Washington University School of Art.