Matthew Rolston
Visionary, Historian, Icon.
Matthew Rolston is an artist who works in photography and video; his practice centers on portraiture, most notably subjects drawn from celebrity culture. Rolston, who lives and works in Los Angeles, studied drawing and painting at the Chouinard Art Institute and Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles, California, as well as at the San Francisco Art Institute. Rolston studied illustration, photography, imaging and film at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where in 2006, he received an Honorary Doctorate.
While still a student at Art Center, Rolston was ‘discovered’ by Andy Warhol, who immediately commissioned portraits for Interview magazine. Thus began an extensive career; over the last 30 years, Matthew Rolston’s photographs have been published in numerous magazines, including Interview, Vogue, W, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, and over 100 covers of Rolling Stone.
Along with his friend Herb Ritts, Rolston was a member of an influential group of photographers, among them, Bruce Weber, Annie Leibovitz and Steven Meisel, to emerge from the 1980’s magazine scene. Rolston’s photographs from this era are notable for their distinctive and glamorous lighting style, surrealistic tableaus, and detail-rich sets. His imagery has helped define the contemporary aesthetics of American portrait photography and truly embodies modern glamour.
His collected works can be found in his published art books: Hollywood Royale, Art People, Talking Heads, beautyLIGHT. Recent gallery exhibitions include, Art People: The Pageant Portraits at Laguna Art Museum, Hollywood Babylon at Nicodim Gallery, and Hollywood Royale at Fahey/Klein Gallery.
Visionary, Historian, Icon.
Matthew Rolston is an artist who works in photography and video; his practice centers on portraiture, most notably subjects drawn from celebrity culture. Rolston, who lives and works in Los Angeles, studied drawing and painting at the Chouinard Art Institute and Otis College of Art & Design in Los Angeles, California, as well as at the San Francisco Art Institute. Rolston studied illustration, photography, imaging and film at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where in 2006, he received an Honorary Doctorate.
While still a student at Art Center, Rolston was ‘discovered’ by Andy Warhol, who immediately commissioned portraits for Interview magazine. Thus began an extensive career; over the last 30 years, Matthew Rolston’s photographs have been published in numerous magazines, including Interview, Vogue, W, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, and over 100 covers of Rolling Stone.
Along with his friend Herb Ritts, Rolston was a member of an influential group of photographers, among them, Bruce Weber, Annie Leibovitz and Steven Meisel, to emerge from the 1980’s magazine scene. Rolston’s photographs from this era are notable for their distinctive and glamorous lighting style, surrealistic tableaus, and detail-rich sets. His imagery has helped define the contemporary aesthetics of American portrait photography and truly embodies modern glamour.
His collected works can be found in his published art books: Hollywood Royale, Art People, Talking Heads, beautyLIGHT. Recent gallery exhibitions include, Art People: The Pageant Portraits at Laguna Art Museum, Hollywood Babylon at Nicodim Gallery, and Hollywood Royale at Fahey/Klein Gallery.
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Client List
Interview
Vogue
Vanity Fair
Harper’s Bazaar
New York Times
Rolling Stone
Vogue
Vanity Fair
Harper’s Bazaar
New York Times
Rolling Stone
W Magazine
Time Inc.
Amazon
ESPN
A&E Lifetime
L’Oreal
Time Inc.
Amazon
ESPN
A&E Lifetime
L’Oreal
Oprah Magazine
Revlon
Estee Lauder
Levi’s
GAP
Elizabeth Arden
Revlon
Estee Lauder
Levi’s
GAP
Elizabeth Arden
Bebe
Polo Ralph Lauren
Campari
Virgin Hotels
Neiman Marcus
Fred Segal
Polo Ralph Lauren
Campari
Virgin Hotels
Neiman Marcus
Fred Segal
Behind the Scenes
BTS Video
Stories
Collection
All prints and collections available to order︎︎︎
Articles
Videos, Podcasts & Interviews
Awards
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2021 Matthew Rolston, Art People: The Pageant Portraits, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
2018 Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
2018 Hollywood Royale: Out of the School of Los Angeles, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Art People: The Pageant Portraits, Ralph Pucci LA, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Hollywood Royale: Out of the School of Los Angeles, Camera Work Photogalerie, Berlin, Germany
2016 Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits, Camera Work Contemporary Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2014 Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits, Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1993 Big Pictures, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, IL
1992 Big Pictures, Exposure Gallery, Parco, Tokyo, Japan
1991 Big Pictures, Staley-Wise Gallery, New York, NY
1991 Big Pictures, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1991 Big Pictures, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1987 Matthew Rolston: Magazine Work/Photographs, Govinda Gallery, Washington, D.C
1982 Matthew Rolston/Portraits, Jennifer Dumas Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1982 New Hollywood Portraiture, FOTO Gallery, New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021/2022 Installation (with Sadie Barnette, Varnette Honeywood, Robert Mapplethorpe, and others), curated by Laura Dvorkin and Maynard Monrow, The Bunker Artspace | The Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody, West Palm Beach, FL
2021 On the Edge, Los Angeles Art 1970s-1990s, from the Joan and Jack Quinn Family Collection (with Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ed Ruscha, and others), Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA
2020 Hollywood Babylon: A Re-Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (with Isabelle Albuquerque, Vaginal Davis, Mike Kelley and others), curated by Benjamin Lee Ritchie Handler | Nicodim Gallery, and Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Vanity Fair: Hollywood Calling (with Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Collier Schorr and others), Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Greater Than LA (with Larry Bell, Genevieve Gaignard, Lauren Halsey and others), curated by Michael Slenske | Desert Center, Los Angeles, CA
2014 The Editor’s Eye: The Anthony Mazzola Years (with Slim Aarons, Bill King, Francesco Scavullo and others), Hearst Gallery, Hearst Tower, New York, NY
2014 Joan Quinn Captured, Brand Art Center, Glendale, CA
2013 Joan, Joan, Joan, The Vi Smith Concourse Gallery at John Wayne Airport, Santa Ana, CA
2013 Through the Lens of the Blues Aesthetic: An Evening of Short Films Selected by Kevin Everson, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2011 Mysterious Objects: Portraits of Joan Quinn, Santa Ana College Main Gallery, Santa Ana, CA
2011 Beauty CULTure, Annenberg Space for Photography, (with Lauren Greenfield, Herb Ritts, Andres Serrano, Carrie Mae Weems and others), Los Angeles, CA
2000 The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion (with Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Robert Mapplethorpe, Steven Meisel and others), The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
1999 The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion (with Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Robert Mapplethorpe, Steven Meisel and others), Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
1998 The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion (with Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Robert Mapplethorpe, Steven Meisel and others), Musée de la Mode, Marseilles, France
1997 The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion (with Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Robert Mapplethorpe, Steven Meisel and others), The Barbican Art Gallery, London, England
1997 The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion (with Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Robert Mapplethorpe, Steven Meisel and others), The Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
1997 The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion (with Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Robert Mapplethorpe, Steven Meisel and others), The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1989 New Nudes (with Annie Leibovitz, Erica Lennard, Herb Ritts, Jan Saudek and others), Govinda Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1988 Fashion and Surrealism (with David Bailey, Horst P. Horst, Man Ray, Bruce Weber and others), Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
1987 Fashion and Surrealism (with David Bailey, Horst P. Horst, Man Ray, Bruce Weber and others), FIT Gallery, New York, NY
1987 New Nudes (with Annie Leibovitz, Erica Lennard, Herb Ritts, Jan Saudek and others), G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1985 Working In L.A. (with Herb Ritts and Greg Gorman), G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1984 Modern Masters (with Jean Pagliuso, Kim Steele and Bruce Weber), Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, TX
1984 Modern Masters (with Jean Pagliuso, Kim Steele and Bruce Weber), Hokin Kauffman Gallery, Chicago, IL
Selected Talks and Lectures
2022 William Mortensen at 125: A Virtual Panel Conversation, with gallerist Stephen Romano, photographic historian Deborah Irmas, author and editor Michael Moynihan, Ph.D. and documentary filmmaker Brian Chidester, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
2021 In Conversation: Matthew Rolston / Art People, with New Yorker Magazine contributing writer and cultural critic Christina Binkley, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
2021 In Conversation - Matthew Rolston and Michael Slenske: Art for Artist’s Sake, with arts writer and curator Michael Slenske, Soho Warehouse, Los Angeles, CA
2021 In Conversation - Matthew Rolston and Merle Ginsberg: Art for Artist’s Sake, with arts and culture editor Merle Ginsberg, The Britely, West Hollywood, CA
2021 In Conversation: Matthew Rolston, with cultural critic Lindsay Preston Zappas and Getty Curator of Photographs Paul Martineau, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
2019 Studio to Studio: Hollywood’s Enduring Influence in Contemporary Art, with Academy Museum Exhibitions Curator Jessica Niebel, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Curator Ryan Linkof and art critic Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, Spring Place, Beverly Hills, CA
2019 The Power of Pleasure: Decoding the Art of Visual Seduction, Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA
2019 Is Glamour Art? A Conversation, with Autre Magazine founding editors Oliver Kupper and Summer Bowie, Frieze LA, Paramount Studios, Hollywood, CA
2018 In Conversation- Looking Back: Andy Warhol's Interview Magazine, with KCRW's Frances Anderton, NeueHouse, Hollywood, CA
2018 Art People: A Conversation, with cultural critic Katya Tylevich, Ralph Pucci LA, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Photographic Arts Council of Los Angeles Artist Gallery Talk, Hollywood Royale, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2018 In Conversation: Matthew Rolston's Hollywood Royale with New Yorker Magazine contributing writer and cultural critic Christina Binkley, SoHo House West Hollywood, CA
2018 Hollywood Royale: Artist Talk with Matthew Rolston, with gallerist Ute Hartjen, The Battery Club, San Francisco, CA
2018 Iris Night Lecture Series: Hollywood Royale, with director and Vanity Fair contributing editor Matt Tyrnauer, The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Glamour, Berlin and Hollywood: Matthew Rolston, with Lee Kaplan, founder of Arcana Books on the Arts, Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, CA
2018 Hollywood Royale by Matthew Rolston, with Lee Kaplan, founder of Arcana Books on the Arts, ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, CA
2018 In Conversation: Matthew Rolston's Hollywood Royale, with Wolfsonian curator Cathy Leff, SoHo Beach House, Miami, FL
2018 In Conversation: Matthew Rolston's Hollywood Royale, with author and Warhol diarist Pat Hackett, SoHo House New York, NY
2017 In Conversation: Matthew Rolston's Hollywood Royale, with cultural critic Nadia Says, SoHo House Berlin, Germany
2014 The Rise of the Fashion Film, with New Yorker Magazine contributing writer and cultural critic Christina Binkley, ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, CA
2011 Iris Night Lecture Series: Matthew Rolston on "Beauty CULTure", with arts and culture editor Merle Ginsberg, The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, CA
2009 beautyLIGHT by Matthew Rolston, with arts and culture editor Merle Ginsberg, ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, CA
Publications
Five monographs have been published of Rolston’s work:
Big Pictures, A Book of Photographs (1991), is a collection of early work with an introduction by director Tim Burton, published by Bullfinch Press, New York.
beautyLIGHT: Pictures at a Magazine (2008) is a survey drawn from twenty years of Rolston’s celebrity portrait photographs published by teNeues, Germany.
Talking Heads: The Vent Haven Portraits (2012), is a fine art project comprised of monumental portraits of ventriloquial figures, published by Pointed Leaf Press, New York
Hollywood Royale: Out of the School of Los Angeles (2017), is a mid-career retrospective, published by teNeues, Germany.
Matthew Rolston, Art People: The Pageant Portraits (2021), is a museum catalog published by Laguna Art Museum in conjunction with their exhibition.
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
National Portrait Gallery, The Smithsonian Museum, Washington, D.C.