Matthew Reynolds is a visual artist living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His paintings, photographs, prints, and mixed-media pieces work with color and space to create shifting perceptions, drawing viewers into an intimate dialogue with fleeting memories, associations and the experience of observation. The work operates through layering information that mirrors how memory and shifting awareness shape our experiences. Each piece explores how the artist's intuitive process of making becomes inseparable from the work's meaning. Through techniques that alternately veil and reveal, the artwork transforms the creative process into a meditation on our most ephemeral experiences.
Over three decades, Reynolds has taught at both university and high school levels, sharing his expertise across painting, drawing, printmaking, graphic design, and photography—an educational practice that continues to inform and enrich his own creative exploration.
Studio Work
My new paintings and gouaches emerge from a process where intuition and planning take turns. The work's apparent immediacy comes from studied exploration of chromatic relationships and form, combined with deliberate layering that builds visual depth. I want this slow development to remain visible so viewers can trace how each piece came to be.
I'm drawn to contradictions—gestural versus deliberate, simple versus complex, flat versus spatial. This constant wrestling becomes a process where each mark or color shift reveals new relationships. It's important that the viewer engages in this wrestling as well, it creates a dynamic conversation with each piece.
Photography Work
Color drives my street photography—it's what makes me lift the camera and press the shutter. What I discover on the streets feels every bit as abstract as what I create in the studio. Sometimes I can hardly believe what I've witnessed. I think of my camera work as documenting everyday mysteries—those fleeting instances of beauty and strangeness hiding in plain sight.
​Education
Finding Your Vision workshop Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb ( 5 day workshop, New York 2024)
San Francisco Street Photography 3-Day Workshop with Eric Kim (2015, 2016)
Single Subject Art Credential- Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA. 2006-2008
MFA in Painting- Bowling Green State University (BGSU), Bowling Green, Ohio. 1995-1998
BFA in Painting- East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C. 1989-1994
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Selected One and Two Person Exhibitions
Couplings: Matthew Reynolds & Catherine Zweig. Morrison Gallery, Penn State University Harrisburg,
Harrisburg, PA. 2005.
Voids and Volumes. Lisa Coscino Gallery, Pacific Grove, CA 2003. (2-person exhibition)
Essential Elements. Tree House Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2002. (solo exhibition)
Minimal Information. Ford Gallery, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 2001. (solo exhibition)
Selected Group Exhibitions
Salon at the Triton. Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara CA 2023
Color Space: Contemporary Photography. Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR 2022
Studio Visit Magazine Volume 37 West Coast (print exhibition) 2017
Small Print International. Leicester Print Workshop. (Traveled to 6 venues in U.K. 2016-2017)
Salon at the Triton. Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara CA 2016
Think Again. Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2001
Short Cuts. The Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2000
International Small Print Exhibition. Finalist Award, Florean Museum, Baia Mare, Romania, 2000
50th Annual Faculty Exhibition. Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery, BGSU, Bowling Green, Ohio. 1999
89th Annual Toledo Area Artists Exhibition. Toledo Museum of Art,Toledo, Ohio. 1998
29th Annual Spring Exhibition. Second Place, Artspace/Lima, Lima, Ohio. 1998.
The Group Show. Spectrum Gallery, Toledo, Ohio. 1998.
Spectrum Gallery Spotlight Show. Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, Ohio. 1998.
Subtle Views: An Invitational Exhibition. Artspace/Lima, Lima, Ohio. 1998.
Subtle Body: MFA Thesis Exhibition. Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery, BGSU, Bowling Green, Ohio. 1998.
Visions of the Soul. Artspace/Lima, Lima, Ohio. 1997.
West Coast Works on/of Paper ‘96. Honorable Mention, Ink People Gallery, Eureka, CA 1996.
Visions of the Spirit. Washington National Cathedral, Washington D.C. 1996.
Gallery Representation
Lisa Coscino Gallery- Pacific Grove, CA 2003-2005
Private Collections
Hans Arp Printing Studios, Locarno, Switzerland
Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford, Ontario, Canada
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