Matthew Russell Rolston an American artist, photographer, and director known for his signature lighting techniques and detailed approach to art direction and design. He has been repeatedly identified throughout his career with the revival and modern expression of Hollywood glamour.
Born in Los Angeles, Rolston studied drawing and painting in his hometown at the Chouinard Art Institute and Otis College of Art & Design, as well as in the Bay Area at the San Francisco Art Institute. He also studied illustration, photography, imaging and film at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, where in 2006, he received an honorary doctorate. While still a student at ArtCenter, Rolston was ‘discovered’ by American artist Andy Warhol, for Warhol’s celebrity-focused Interview magazine, where he began a successful career in photography. Over the last four decades, Rolston’s photographs have been published prominently in numerous magazines, including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, and over 100 covers of Rolling Stone.
Rolston’s photographs have been exhibited at museums and institutions. Selected group shows include Beauty CULTure (with Lauren Greenfield, Herb Ritts, Andres Serrano, and Carrie Mae Weems, 2011), The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, California; The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion (curated by Mark Francis and Margery King), The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1997); and Fashion and Surrealism, FIT Gallery, New York, 1987 (traveled to the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK, 1988).
In 1998, Rolston endowed the “Matthew Rolston Scholarship for Film and Creative Direction,” at ArtCenter. Rolston remains actively involved in this program as a mentor and lecturer on the subjects of modern communication techniques, fashion aesthetics, luxury brand strategies and social impact messaging in the public interest.
To recognize the significance of Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, another key Southern California institution in Rolston’s artistic development, he established the “Matthew Rolston Scholarship Fund for Product and Fashion Design at Otis College” in 2024. This fund supports the education of students in product and fashion design at Otis, with a particular emphasis on communication and creative direction practices. Rolston participates actively in this scholarship program as a mentor and lecturer.
Rolston’s works are in the permanent collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, NY, and the National Portrait Gallery (The Smithsonian, Washington D.C.) among others.
Concurrent with the Vanitas exhibition, select works by Rolston’s may be seen on view as part of the group exhibition Queer Lens: A History of Photography at the Getty Center, curated by Paul Martineau, Curator of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
For more information about Matthew Rolston and Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits, please visit:
https://www.vanitasproject.com