Early Life and Academic Training

Matt Connors was born in 1973 in Chicago, United States. His early years in the city provided a foundation for a path that would eventually lead him toward the study of language and the visual image. He pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago, where he earned a BA in English Literature. This focus on text and structure remains a quiet presence in his background.

His academic trajectory shifted toward the lens and the frame when he moved to New Haven. At the Yale University School of Art, he focused on photography, a discipline that shaped his understanding of composition and the way an image occupies space. He completed his MFA in Photography at Yale, graduating in 2006. These years of study helped establish the technical and conceptual frameworks he would later apply to his work in painting.

Artistic Technique and Style

Matt Connors works primarily in the realm of abstract painting. His approach is rooted in the history of painting and various formal processes, drawing heavily from the logic of minimalism and abstraction. Beyond the visual, his practice is shaped by the rhythms of music, the structure of poetry, and the nuances of writing and design. These influences manifest in a way that feels both deliberate and quiet.

The physical relationship between the paint and the support is central to his method. He often uses Flashe acrylic, a matte medium that behaves much like watercolor on paper. Rather than sitting on top of the surface, the paint is worked into the canvas. It seeps into the raw fibers, creating a sense of depth where the pigment becomes part of the material itself. This technique allows the color to settle into the weave, making the work feel less like an object placed upon a surface and more like a state of being within the fabric.

His canvases often exist in a space between being a flat surface and a three-dimensional object. By allowing the paint to soak into the raw canvas, he avoids the heavy buildup of traditional oil painting, opting instead for a more integrated, absorbed appearance. This method emphasizes the materiality of the canvas and the way light interacts with the stained fibers.

Exhibitions and Professional Activity

Living and working between New York and Los Angeles, Connors maintains a presence in several major art hubs. His practice has moved through various spaces, including a residency at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, in 2015. This period in Texas sits alongside a career that has seen his work placed in institutions such as MoMA PS1 in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit.

His professional trajectory includes a significant recognition in 2024, when he was awarded the Rome Prize in Visual Arts at the American Academy in Rome. This period of study follows years of exhibiting in diverse locations, from the Kunsmuseum Bonn to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. His work has also been shown at L'Almanach - Le Consortium in Dijon and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.

Major Publications and Projects

Connors has used the book format to explore ideas alongside his painting. In 2011, he released Correspondences through Ooga Booga. A few years later, in 2012, he published A Bell is a Cup. These publications reflect a way of organizing thought and imagery outside the traditional canvas.

His project titled General Assembly involved a large-scale undertaking of portraiture. This work consists of 650 portraits captured during the first year of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City. The portraits are black and white. They are arranged in a tight, repetitive grid, pairing individual faces within a strict format. Many of these images were taken in Zuccotti Park, capturing people during moments of direct action or quiet reflection before and after meetings.

Public Collections and Representation

The presence of his work in permanent public collections reflects a steady institutional recognition. His paintings and pieces are held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Dallas Museum of Art. Other institutions that include his work in their holdings are the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the San Antonio Museum of Art in Texas.

His professional representation is spread across several key cities. He works with Xavier Hufkens in Brussels and Herald St. in London. In the United States, his interests are represented by Ortuzar Projects in New York.