Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Leeds School of Arts researchers promoted to Professor for excellent academic achievement
In July 2022, in recognition of their academic achievement, Leeds School of Arts colleagues Dr Nikos Stavropoulos and Matty Bovan have been promoted to the status of Professor.
Professor Matty Bovan
I am so delighted to announce that I have been made a Professor at Leeds Beckett University. This is such a huge honour and I thank all at Leeds Beckett University for their continued support- especially Professor Peter Slee and Professor Simon Morris - I am so grateful for this incredible recognition.
Also huge thanks to everyone for their continued support of me and my journey
York-based creative Matty Bovan, 31, graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2015 with an MA specialising in Fashion Knitwear. His 12-look graduate collection opened the final show, exhibiting his cacophony of sculptural knits, textures and wild, handmade adornments, which earned him the L’Oréal Professionnel Creative Award, closely followed by the LVMH Graduate Prize, going on to work with Marc Jacobs and Miu Miu.
A recipient the prestigious 2021 International Woolmark Prize, also scooping their Karl Lagerfeld Award for Innovation, judge Carine Roitfeld commented: 'What impressed me about Matty is his capacity to win both awards – for his innovation and creativity - and I really think he deserves it. He is pure fashion, he makes me dream and he reminds me of a young Vivienne Westwood or a John Galliano, and we desperately need that sort of designer in the fashion world today.'
He recently returned to the catwalk to present his Autumn/Winter 2022 ‘Cyclone’ Collection at London Fashion Week, which was shown within the Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square. Inspired by his American fever dream from growing up heavily influenced by US TV shows set in high schools, American Baseball pep rallies and cheerleaders, he spent two months in deepest Connecticut, working on the collection, delving into American folk art books, at the Mark Twain Library, greatly inspired by Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs, antique pictorial rag rugs and early American quilts. Irina Shayk opened and closed the show, while the rest of the collection was worn by male models: ‘I have always seen my work as totally gender neutral, and I fit 90% of the looks on myself, also using a self-timer to capture myself embodying each season’s character. Fashion for me is ever changing and morphing, which I always find compelling.'
Working with a plethora of brands on the collection, he says: 'I really wanted to delve into the idea of ready-made in more depth this season, so I decided to explore classic staples such as: Calvin Klein jeans, the puffball gown - ROKSANDA, the tailored jacket - Vivienne Westwood, Converse All Stars, the flight jacket - Alpha Industries, the Adidas tracksuit, the hiking boot – Diemme, the sweat pant, and the varsity jacket. To hand manipulate both the ready-made and my own collection, follows my ethos that luxury can only exist as something truly unique and individual.'
Immersive, participatory installation Matty Bovan: Boomerang took place at Yorkshire Sculpture Park last October, and questioned the construction of identity, authorship and personal ‘brand’ in the age of social media. In the run up to the exhibition, his work was celebrated across 20 prominent billboard sites across Yorkshire.
He has worked with various brands, including: Veuve Clicquot, Coach NY, Gina, Miu Miu, Stephen Jones Millinery, M.A.C Cosmetics, Barbie, Swarovski, British Airways, and Miller Harris, and his work is worn by a loyal fan base, including Erin O’Connor, Kristen McMenamy, Adesuwa Aghewi, Adwoa Aboah, Naomi Campbell, Björk, Rita Ora, Noomi Rapace, Shirley Manson, Lara Stone, Georgia May Jagger, Winnie Harlow, Daisy Lowe, Tilda Swinton, St Vincent, and Elfie Reigate.
Matty Bovan Studio is dedicated to a sustainable ethos employing a tight network of British manufacturers and local craftspeople. He works diligently to limit any waste, constantly undertaking research and education in preparing for their future footprint. Yarns hand-dyed in-house in small batches, ensure minimal water use, then farmed out locally to knitters in York, who finally return them to the studio to be hand-painted. In-house knitting is a combination of domestic knitting machine using the punchcard technique, and hand-crochet, with no electricity used in the process.
He held his first London Fashion Week stand-alone solo show for Autumn/Winter 2018, following 3 seasons as part of Fashion East. He has been twice nominated for Emerging Designer Womenswear at the Fashion Awards 2018 and 2019.
Professor Matty Bovan’s inspired collections for London Fashion week are research informed. You will often find Matty roaming the collections of stately homes in the United Kingdom such as Burton Agnes, Holkham Hall, the Bowes Museum, Chatsworth House or mining the special archives of the Mark Twain Library and The Library of Congress in the USA. He will be enthusiastically researching subjects as diverse as: carved chimney pieces; American Dutch Barns covered in folk art; Hex Signals; Quilts and Rug hooking; or in the Prints and Photographs division of a special archive engaging with thousands of images from LOOK magazine’s fashion shoots from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. We’re delighted to have Professor Bovan’s skills, expertise and visionary approach to Fashion at Leeds Beckett where he has already made a big impact on our students and their work through his research informed teaching.
I am delighted and honoured to have been appointed Professor of Composition at Leeds Beckett University. I look forward to working closely with colleagues to establish music at Leeds Beckett as a research area of excellence and continue contributing to the delivery and development of research informed curriculum.
Nikos Stavropoulos is a composer of predominantly acousmatic and mixed media works. His music is performed and broadcast regularly around the world and has been awarded internationally on several occasions. His research deals with notions of tangibility and immersivity in acousmatic experiences and the articulation of acoustic space in electroacoustic music. In the last few years, he has been working with surround and periphonic recordings of source materials and Higher Order Ambisonics to create immersive three-dimensional sound works which explore the idea of aural micro-space, an area whose aural architecture is not accessible unless it is mediated by recording technology.
Concert presentations in 2002 include the New York City Electroacoustic Music and Cube Fest festivals in the USA, Ecoforme: Contrazioni amd MA/IN festival in Italy, Nova sessió de El Sindicato de Altavoces in Spain, and Medisoup festival in Cyprus. Recent awards include the Concours biennal de composition acousmatique Métamorphoses, Ohain (Belgium), Ars Electronica Forum Wallis, Leuk (Switzerland), and Concurso de Composición Electroacústica Destellos, Mar del Plata (Argentina) amongst others. His album Micro-lieux is available on CD and download from the empreintes DIGITALes label.
This is recognition of the position that Nikos has established internationally as one of the leading composers in his field. Along with Professor Sue Miller, he is making the Music subject area at Beckett one of the most innovative and exciting in the UK.
Professor Nikos Stavropoulos
