MATTHIAS ARNDT CURRICULUM VITAE
Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1968, Matthias Arndt attended a secondary school specialising in business and completed an apprenticeship with a bank. At the age of 20, however, his interest in art led him to switch fields and become a trainee at a Berlin and London based Gallery Galerie and the Centre national d´art contemporain Villa Arson in France. While studying Art History and Art Education at the Kassel School of Art and Design, Arndt established his first gallery project from 1990 to 1992, which received the city of Kassel’s Cultural Promotion Award. He also worked as an art educator and visitors’ guide at the documenta IX (under the artistic direction of Jan Hoet). After earning a further degree in Education and Cultural Management at the Hamburg School of Economics and Politics, Matthias Arndt moved to Berlin and founded the gallery Arndt & Partner in 1994. Over 18 years, Matthias Arndt organised a total of 250 exhibitions and 80 international art fair participations, published almost 50 monographic publications and artists books, establishing himself as a pioneering connoisseur of the Berlin art scene and an expert authority in the field of international contemporary art.
In his capacity as arts and culture manager, Matthias Arndt founded the company artservices (1997–2001) and managed the guide and visitor support services of the documenta X. He subsequently devised the concept for the Berlin art platform Kunstherbst Berlin, managed the visitor support services for the Expo 2000, and acted as a consultant for the TUI Group responsible for the Expo’s implementation. Again with artservices, Arndt developed the concept for the guide and visitor support services at AUTOSTADT Wolfsburg for the Volkswagen AG.
Matthias Arndt lectured at the Berlin Institute for Cultural and Media Management from 1996 to 2004.
In 2001, Matthias Arndt was named a “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” and thus made a member of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.