About Matthew
Matthew Rangel is a fine artist from California’s San Joaquin Valley. His work is focused on land-based artistic practice in which his creative research aims to link the natural to the human and embody the physical aspects of landscape through personal narrative.
Matthew attended College of the Sequoias and went on to receive a BFA in Drawing/Painting and Printmaking from California State University, Long Beach followed by a MFA from the University of Alberta. His work has been featured in solo shows throughout the Central Valley and in group shows among places such as the Wildling Art Museum, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and The White House in Washington DC. Additionally, his work is among several notable public and private collections such as the Los Angeles Print-making Society, the White House, the Stonehouse Residency for the Contemporary Arts and the Visalia Visual Chronicle. In 2010 his work was published by University of Alberta Libraries in a forty-four page monograph titled Journeys beyond the Neatline: Expanding the boundaries of cartography followed by a feature in Elephant Magazine (an internationalcontemporary art magazine published in the Netherlands), Issue 7, Summer 2011.
Matthew is a founding member and the principal coordinator of the Kaweah Land & Arts Festival, a celebration of the land, the people, and the art of the Kaweah landscape where scholars, artists, and nature enthusiasts collaborate on public events throughout Visalia, California and the surrounding landscape. Matthew currently lives in Visalia where he teaches drawing and painting at College of the Sequoias and he also serves on the board of directors for the Sequoia Natural History Association. His continual explorations of the local hillsides and remote backcountry of Tulare County is a deep passion that is vital to his creativity and personal well being.