Matty Bovan’s Ribbons exhibition comes to NOW Gallery

The new free entry exhibition is open now at the London gallery until 5 March 2023.

Ribbons is an immersive, site-specific installation of Matty Bovan’s work. The York-based designer has been awarded this year’s NOW Gallery 2022 Fashion Commission – which offers fashion designers the opportunity to take their creative practice beyond the garment and create their own world within the Greenwich Peninsula gallery space.

The exhibition takes the symbol of the ribbon and features a brightly–coloured, central knitted ribbon structure that visitors can step inside. Within this installation, there are three exclusive films showing, each of which features a different narrative and characters wearing custom clothing by Bovan. Speaking on the films Bovan explained, “I have layered and manipulated footage with colour and texture, which shift and meld into new forms constantly evolving, blending reality and fantasy, two worlds I constantly push and pull in and out of.”

In addition to this central piece, the exhibition features a curved wall displaying Bovan’s painted canvases. This is the first time these works are available to view. For Ribbons, Bovan also worked with perfumers VYRAO who created scents for key elements of the installation, heightening the immersive sensory aspect of the exhibition.

There’s also exclusive merchandise to accompany Ribbons, which includes screen-printed hoodies, a sweatshirt featuring knitted ribbons as well as painted clay earrings and kilt pins designed by Bovan’s mother Plum Bovan.

Speaking on the new exhibition, Bovan said, “Ribbons is my most personal project to date, a world built in my truest vision. The films in particular have been a labour of love. Shooting, art directing and working on the soundtracks has allowed me to fully realise and give flesh and bones to what I had set out to achieve.” He continues: “I want people to be able to escape into the Ribbons world, to be able to dream, and to want to create their own world, however abstract or literal they wish. My world is full of dreams and nightmares, much like real life, but i do overall believe this a positive world i have built.”

Head to the NOW Gallery website for further information and see a selection of images from the exhibiton below.