WALTER
MATIA Walter Matia was born in 1953 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated at Williams College in Massachusetts where he received degrees in Biology and Art Design. Much of his training was attained during a long apprenticeship in the Exhibits Department of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. After leaving the Cleveland Museum, Matia worked for eleven years with the Nature Conservancy. Matia began casting his sculpture in 1980. Initially, he concentrated on bird life, but then began working on sporting dogs and other mammals. In 1987 he began a series of large fountain pieces. In 1989 the Blair House Restoration Committee placed one of his fountains in the formal garden of the United States President's Guest House. To complement the fountain, he produced a bronze wall frieze for the Blair House in 1992. Matia's works have been exhibited in one-man shows at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art. He is a regular participant in the Society of Animal Artists shows, the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, MD, the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition in Charleston, SC, and the Prix de West Invitational Exhibition in Oklahoma City, OK. In 1996 he was elected as a Professional Member of the National Sculpture Society. Matia's works have also been selected for the prestigious Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's "Birds in Art" exhibitions and have toured to dozens of museums both in the United States and abroad. Major outdoor commissions include: Wichita Kansas Botanical Gardens; Benson Park Sculpture Gardens in Loveland, CO; American University in Washington, DC; Deerwood Office Park in Jacksonville, FL; three regional offices of Merrill Lynch, and the NFL Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX. |
Russell Fink Gallery |