About

Matthew Mulholland is a New York–based abstract artist whose work explores emotion, internal conflict, and the visual language of feeling.

Born in 1975 and raised in New York City, Matthew attended public school and graduated from Bayard Rustin High School for the Humanities in 1993. From an early age, painting became a natural form of expression. At just four years old, while attending pre-kindergarten at Collegiate Nursery School, he began creating large, instinctive works—sweeping brushstrokes across oversized paper. Even then, educators recognized that his choices of color and shape seemed tied to his emotional state, forming a direct and unfiltered connection between feeling and image.

Born with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Matthew has spent years developing a visual practice that channels the intensity, tension, and complexity of OCD into abstraction. His work reflects an internal landscape—where repetition, movement, and shifting forms mirror the experience of thought patterns and emotional fluctuation. Rather than depicting the world, his paintings translate what cannot easily be said into something that can be seen.

Alongside his visual practice, Matthew developed a deep and lasting love of film, which continues to influence his sense of mood, pacing, and atmosphere. That cinematic sensitivity carries into his artwork, where each piece unfolds as an experience rather than a fixed image.

More recently, Matthew spent a year in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, studying at The Quiet Space, where he worked closely with artists Dane Klingaman, Jillian Bird, and Judith and Pete Hokky. This period marked an important phase of growth and refinement in his practice, allowing him to further develop his voice within abstraction.

Matthew is also the illustrator of the upcoming children’s book Where Am I? I Am Here., written by Ben Rhodes and published by Colossal New York, scheduled for release in Fall 2026.

He has since returned to New York City, where he continues his work in an art studio, creating pieces that remain rooted in instinct, emotion, and the evolving relationship between mind and form.

His work does not seek to explain.
It seeks to express.

Photo of Matthew in London by Sarah Tracey