Matthew Paulson was born in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. He received a BFA from Atlanta College of Art in 2001, and completed further studies at Maryland Institute College of Art before receiving his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2006. He relocated to New York City shortly thereafter, where he worked as an artist assistant for several artists, including Richard Prince, while pursuing his own career. He currently lives and works in Rockaways, Queens, where New York City’s subway and sidewalk skirt the Atlantic Ocean.
His practice stems from conceptual framework that takes a variety of forms, including deconstructing everyday items, that are reconfigured into ephemeral sculptures, textiles and installations spun from personal collections of materials that include packaging, advertisements, catalogs, and urban flotsam that he acquires through a variety of “natural” processes, from gleaning urban beaches and sifting the periodical mail delivered to his home. Utilizing various hybridized and meditative art practices, he explores the social, geographical, and ecologic overlap within his enviornment. Employing the immediate and familiar visual and psychological lexicons of advertising, commercial graphics and product design; drawing on their labels, sponsored celebrities, and corporate mascots to empower his own art production. T
He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitons in New York, Atlanta, Baltimore, San Francisco, Washington DC, Miami, and Berlin, and has been reviewed and featured in Art Papers magazine, The Baltimore Sun, and the Whitefish Review.