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.
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.
He remains dedicated to arts education and is actively involved in this program as both professor and
mentor to the next generation of creators.
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
(Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture at 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