Hastings bred, currently living in Wanganui. Matthew has been exhibiting since 2001. Four times a finalist in the James Wallace Art Awards. His works are held in collections throughout New Zealand, Australia, USA, UK and Hong Kong. His recent works reflects his interest in traditional art forms and new technology and was made while travelling around America. During this trip he worked on a series of small paintings on tin. The works acted as a diary and were based on Mexican retablos, or ex-votos painted for devotional use. Historically a client would commission the village artisan to paint an ex-voto to a specific saint to give thanks for saving them from a specific incident. The ex-voto usually depicts the commissioner, a particular saint, symbols to represent the event and several lines of text under the imagery to supplement the symbolism. Matt has been selected as one of the top 100 contemporary artists in 'Seen This Century: A Collector's Guide'.