Matt was born on Long Island New York, and his family lived in California for several years before settling in rural Denver, North Carolina where he spent his teens. Upon graduation Matt moved to Asheville, North Carolina to study at University of North Carolina’s Asheville campus. After receiving his BFA in Sculpture he went on to earn his MFA at Clemson University. Matt worked as an artist and fabricator for ten years out of his private studio in S.C. In 2009 Matt moved back to western North Carolina to a mountainside in Swannanoa to teach Sculpture and Ceramics at his alma mater. Matt has had a passion for being outdoors his entire life, spending countless hours kayaking the headwaters of southern Appalachian rivers over the past two decades. This love of the rivers he has traveled is an inspiration for his current Watersheds series.

“My work has continually been a conversation about human creations and their interactions with the environment in which they exist. I am interested that intersection, the seduction or illusion of creating something that can benefit humanity while working harmoniously with the natural world. Part of the Watersheds series, both the river system and dam components within the work have been removed from their surroundings, while remaining proportionally accurate. The scale between river and dam have been inversed, resulting in the absurdity of a monolithic rigid dam supporting the delicate river system.”