Matt Siber

Courtesy of the artist.

Matt Siber is a Chicago-based visual artist working in photography, digital imaging, video, installation, and sculpture. Siber made the featured image during his two years of residence with CPS Lives, where he spent his residency in his daughters’ elementary school within the Chicago Public School system. The image is an early experiment with an idea that became his focus when the COVID-19 pandemic hit a few months later: the physical objects that make public education possible in aestheticized, often precarious ways. 

Siber completed his MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago. He has had solo exhibitions in Madrid, Berlin, and Chicago, among other cities. His first monograph, Idol Structures, was published by the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, in 2015. Siber’s artwork is part of many private and public permanent collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP), Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago, and Josh Bidwell Foundation, Winston, Oregon. His work has been published internationally in publications including ArtForum, Sculpture, Flash Art, Aperture, and Exit. He has received grants from the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation, the Aaron Siskind Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council. Siber is an assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.