Walter T. Matia

Walter T. Matia was educated at Williams College in Massachusetts, where he earned degrees in biology and art design. He gained much of his training during a long apprenticeship in the exhibits department of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

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His works have been exhibited in one-man shows at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art. Matia is a regular participant in the Society of Animal Artists, National Sculpture Society, Easton Waterfowl Festival, Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival, Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale, Coors Western Art Exhibition and Sale, and the Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale. He is a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society and received the Society’s 2003 Gold Medal Award.

In 1988, Matia was commissioned to sculpt the Merrill Lynch bull, which was cast and installed at corporate regional offices in Florida, New Jersey, and Colorado. In 2002, he accepted a commission from the NFL Houston Texans to design and sculpt six oversize bronze Spanish fighting bulls for their Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. The Spirit of the Bull monument was dedicated in September 2003, and in 2004 he completed Evolution of Life, a 12-foot-diameter sundial commissioned by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. At the Autry National Center of the American West’s 2007 Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale, he was awarded the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation Award for Sculpture. The prestigious Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum named Matia its 2007 Master Wildlife Artist. And in 2009, Matia’s work was shown in exhibitions at the Simpson Gallagher Gallery in Cody, Wyoming; the Lafayette Gallery in Frederick, Maryland; and in a three-man show with James Morgan and Matt Smith, titled Into the Land, at the Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Walter T. Matia is represented by Collectors Covey, Dallas, Texas.