What is my work about?
My work is about how people experience and interact with landscape. Each series or project requires walking, exploration, patient observation and openness to discovery. I have a particular interest public space; places like parks, preserves, waterways, streets and sidewalks. The Internet has redefined public space and this new domain has become an equally vital source for creating work about landscape. While some of my work explores the virtual world, most of my largest projects are expressly about being present and walking in landscape. The inspiring richness of experiencing landscape firsthand is so important to my work that I sometimes create maps and guided walks as a way to extend the experience of my work beyond the walls of a venue.
Artist Statement
How a population or neighborhood uses and moves through the environment is not a static idea; it shifts with changes in technology, politics and economy. When a shift does take place, history and tradition are often relegated to the periphery. It is in the cracks of the every day that I mine for clues of the past and predictors of the future. The discoveries I make in a landscape or community are contextualized to create my final works; often a combination photography, installation and participatory action. My goal is to leave the viewer with a more developed understanding of a place. I also want to share the enthralling experiences I have when I am wandering slowly through the landscape (or the Internet) trying to discover what I know is just out of view.
My site-specific and multidisciplinary practice invites experimentation and adaptation. A recent project, The Wilmington Center for the Study of Local Landscape, 2013, is an example of one piece with many layers. The installation functioned as an ad-hoc municipal entity with a mission of investigating area parks. Participation was central to the design of the project. Each “founding member” explored a single park and created a box to hold their photographs, drawings, poems and related ephemera. At the opening, the entire group sat at the picnic/conference table to have a public discussion about local landscapes and public space. The walls of the gallery housed the work I made that examined the entire system of area parks. Visitors to the exhibition were invited to explore the contents of the boxes on the central table while surrounded by hidden wonders from their own backyards.
Over the past ten years the Internet has added a completely new realm of publicly accessible landscapes and a particularly vital place to create work; especially during winter when walking is not always an option. The first piece I created, The 49 States, 2009, played with the history of landscape photography while utilizing Google Street View as a source. Most recently I created a series titled Traffic Cam Sunrise, 2014, that captures the sun as it rises across the United States as seen through the lenses of traffic cameras in all 50 states. I wanted the work to extend the reach of landscape photography while also commenting on how technology is shifting our experience of landscape. The very fact that we can go somewhere and look around before we arrive has changed how we travel and remember landscape.
CV
Education
2008 University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, MFA, Photography and Sculpture
2002 Rice University, Houston, TX, BA, Fine Arts and Political Science
Residency Programs
2013
Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE
2012
Wave Hill Winter Workspace, Bronx, NY
2011
The MacDowell Colony , Peterborough, NH
2010
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Swing Space, New York, NY
Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska City, NE
Grants and Fellowships
2014
Museum Commission, The Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art
2013
National Endowment for the Arts, for artist project the Delaware Center for
Contemporary Art titled The Wilmington Center for the Study of Local Landscape.
2011
MacDowell Fellowship
2010
New York State Senate Grantee
Two grants awarded for continued work on landscape photography project Nowhere In Manhattan
2009
Manhattan Community Arts Fund/New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
Grant for exhibition and work on landscape photography project Nowhere In Manhattan
Exhibitions
2014
Crossing Brooklyn (group show), Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Alongside Tall Grasses, artist commission and solo show, Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA
Surveying the Terrain, group exhibition curated by Dan Solomon, Contemporary Art Museum – Raleigh (CAM)
The Wilmington Center for the Study of Local Landscape, solo show, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, DE
2013
The Psychic Triangle, group exhibition curated by Jessica Cannon, Nurture Art, Brooklyn, NY
Local Expeditions, solo show, Third Streaming Gallery, New York, NY May 2 – August 16
After Photoshop: Manipulated Photography in the Digital Age, group exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Wave Hill Sunroom Project Space, Bronx, NY
East Coast, West Coast, The Bronx, The Bronx, solo show
2012
New Country: Ruralism in Contemporary Art, group exhibition Oct 24 – Nov 20, Claypool-Young Art Gallery, Morehead State University
The Fools Journey, group exhibition, Curious Matter, Jersey City, NJ
2011
Life Near the Void, photographs and walk, group exhibition, InSite: Art + Commemoration , L.M.C.C.
Selections from series installed in on East 57th Street, Public Work/Scaffold Installation: Nowhere In Manhattan
Elastic City, Signs of Life, four artist-walks through Inwood Park, New York, NY
An Exchange with Sol Lewitt, curated by Regine Basha/Cabinet Magazine, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
2010
Searching for Something Unknown or Forgotten on Governors Island, solo show, Building 110: LMCC’s Art Center on Governors Island
Public Work/Billboard Installation: Nowhere In Manhattan
Installation of two street-level billboards of landscapes, each 24’x16’ Sixth Avenue at Grand and Thompson Street at Canal
2009
The New Landscape, group exhibition, Canal View, New York, NY
Nowhere In Manhattan, solo show, Chashama Gallery, 44th Street, New York, NY
2008
Citizens Committee For New York City (CCNYC)
Rockaway: Landscapes at the Edge of New York, solo show
Pentameter, group exhibition, Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts, New York, NY
New Work/Five Artists, group MFA exhibition, Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, CT
Real Art Ways Slide Slam, Group exhibition, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT
Lagrange National Biennial XXV, Group exhibition, Lagrange Art Museum, Lagrange, GA
Toledo Friends of Photography 2008, group exhibition Center for the Visual Arts, University of Toledo
50/50: New Media Object, group exhibition, Artspace Windham & Artwell Gallery, Torrington, CT Nov 4 – Feb 25
2007
Radius , group exhibition, curated by the Aldrich Museum, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum /Ridgefield Artist Guild
Matthew Jensen: Recent Photography and Sculpture, solo show, Windham Arts Center, Willimantic, CT
Digital Atelier 2007, group exhibition, Contemporary Arts Gallery, University of Connecticut Aug 30 – Sept 20
Artist Walks and Community Projects
City as Living Laboratory, The air up high, invited artist walk, 2013
Storm King, Wanderings and Wonderings, two invited artist-walks, 2013
Storm King/LMCC/River-to-River: Artists Respond, invited artist-walk, 2012
Nowhere In Manhattan: Billboard project with the High School for Art and Design, 2011
Wave Hill Workshop: Typologies of Place, 2011
Elastic City, Signs of Life, Artist-walks at Inwood Park, 2011
Curated Online Exhibitions
We belong to you, you do not belong to us, curated by Erika Lynne Hanson for Little Paper Planes, printed catalog, Oct 2012.
Little Paper Planes, 12 images from series Brand New Tattoo with interview, Jan 2012
ArtSpace.com, curated by Nessia Pope, 3 portfolios from series Every Tree In Town, Dec 2011
Teaching/Work Experience
Parsons/The New School, Part-time Professor of Studio Art, Fall 2012 – Present
– Course: Freshman Studio Art – ESL (2 Sections), The Public Poetic Summer 2014
– Course: Freshman Studio Art – Community Engagement (2 Sections) Spring 2014
– Course: Freshman Studio Art – Migrate Fall 2013
– Course: Black & White and Digital Color Intensive Summer 2013
– Course: Junior Seminar, Photography Spring 2013
– Course: LIGHT, Freshman Digital Imaging Seminar Fall 2012
SUNY Purchase, Adjunct Professor, Foundations Program Spring 2014 – Present
– Course: 4D Processes (Time and Participation) Spring 2014
Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Visiting Artist/Instructor
– Course: Local Landscape Topics Fall 2013
Participants from the Wilmington area partook in this free course offered at the museum. Each
participant selected a public park and over the course of the “semester” they conducted various writing,
photography and collection-based projects in their parks. All of their works are brought together in the
gallery as an installation called The Wilmington Center for the Study of Local Landscape.
George Washington University, Lecturer of Photography
– Courses: Digital/DSLR Color Photography (2 sections) Fall 2013
University of Connecticut, Adjunct Instructor
– Courses: Black & White Photography Fall 2007 & Spring 2008
Studio Manager, John-Paul Philippe Inc. May 2008 – Fall 2012
– Managed all aspects of SoHo-based studio: art procurement, international projects, exhibition
coordinating, communications, payroll, staffing, bookkeeping, website and art production
Artist Lecture & Jurying
Professional Women Photographers (PWP): Artist talk March 2014
Marfa Dialogues/CaLL/Mary Miss: Panel discussion Nov 2013
Artist Talk: The University of the Arts, Philadelphia Nov 2013
Artist Talk: Pratt Institute Sept 2013
The James Prize: Moving Image Art Fair, Juror Feb 2012 & March 2013
Visiting Artist Presentation: Parsons School of Design Oct 2011
Artist Presentation and Talk: Evolve the Conversation Oct 2011
Artist Presentation and Talk: High School for Art and Design May 2011
The Artist Life in New York: NYFA Panel Discussion at Pratt Feb 2011
Shoreline Alliance for the Arts: Images 30 , Juror Jan 2011
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council: Swing Space, Juror Nov 2010
Visiting Artist Presentation: Salve Regina University Sept 2005
Collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art
National Gallery of Art
The James New York
Agnes Gund
Curated Events and Benefit Auctions
Governors Island Association Party & Benefit, curated by LMCC, 2011
Design Trust for Public Space, Benefit Auction 2010, 2011 & 2012
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Benefit Auction, curated by Yona Backer, 2011 & 2012
LMCC Downtown Dinner and Benefit Auction, 2011 & 2012
Benevolent New World, A.T. Kearney, curated by Heidi Lee, 2010
Arts Bibliography
– Crossing Brooklyn Highlights Borough’s Artist, Art in America, Brian Boucher, 4/23/14
– Artists Take On Surveillance State, WUNC.org, S. Wen and F. Stasio, 10/22/2013
– Surveying the Terrain, Doug Rickard and Matthew Jensen, Daylight Digital, Interview, 10/20/2013
– First Rate Walking in First State, The News Journal, Betsy Price, 10/10/2013
– San Francisco Arts Quarterly Online, Review of Local Expeditions, Louis M. Schmidt, 7/6/2013
– Walkabout: Lost and Found, The New Yorker, Ian Frazier, p. 23, 7/23/2012
– Taking Root in the Bronx, The Wall Street Journal, Lizzie Simon, 2/13/2012
– The 49 States, 1814 Magazine, 12 page interview/photo essay, 10/8/2011
– Art Sprouts Up At a School Construction Site, The New York Times/School Book Online, Hadas Goshen, 9/15/11
– Tapped In: Constructive Art, Our Town East Side, M. Finnegan, 9/21/11
– Artist Matthew Jensen Opens Outdoor Public Art Exhibition…, NY Daily News Online, 9/19/11
– Photos of ‘Nowhere’ Adorn High School Construction Site, DNAInfo.com, Mary Johnson, 9/16/11
– An Exchange with Sol Lewitt, Regine Basha, Cabinet Books, p. 82, 2011
– Art in Residence: The James New York, Phaidon.com, Bonnie Tsui, 2/28/10
– Rooms with a view, Wallpaper Magazine, Marina Cashdan, p. 90, 12/2010
– The Hotel as Art Gallery, The New York Times, Diane Cardwell, 8/29/10
Two-page, feature article on curatorial project Stand Here and Listen.
– A hotel that’s also an art Gallery, WABC-TV, Interview by Lauren Glassberg, 9/2/10
– Jensen @ Governors Island, Whitewall Magazine Online, Review by Elizabeth Weiner, 7/26/10
– Exotic Isle for Artists, Right in the City, The New York Times, Robin Pogrebin, 6/1/10
– ‘The New Landscape at Canal View in SoHo, The Huffington Post, Yelena Kalinsky, 12/17/09
– A Walk Through Nowhere, NPR/WNYC, Beth Fertig, Morning Edition feature story, 8/20/09
– Nowhere In Manhattan, The Huffington Post, Rufus Lusk, Front Page Feature Story, 8/11/09
– Previews, Whitewall Magazine Online, Lily Rose, 8/13/09
– Exhibition Exposes The ‘Other Side’ Of the Rockaways, The Wave, 5/30/08
– Tall Order, The Chronicle, Janice Steinhagen, review of show, two images, 8/23/07
– One, Two, Tree: Counting The Spruces, Hartford Courant, Peter Marteka, Front-page feature story, 6/12/07
– Trash artist strikes again in Willimantic, The Willimantic Chronicle, Heather Lottier, Front-page, 11/29/06