Matthew Sandager is an award-winning artist whose work in painting, film, and animation includes commissioned projects for Sesame Street, New York Magazine, Target, The New York Review of Books, and John Derian. His work has been featured in festivals and galleries around the world. He was a visiting artist at the Charles Schulz Museum in 2025 where he presented his animation work and led stop-motion workshops and was an artist in resident in LMCC’s 2023 Workspace Residency program in NYC.

Through filmmaking, Matthew reignited his first love—painting. He works primarily in watercolor, drawn to its immediacy, expressiveness, and unpredictability. Much of his recent work is inspired by time spent on Fire Island, where the shifting light, vibrant community, and layered history of the landscape continue to inform his queer outlook and artistic voice.

Matthew was born and raised in Minnesota and is based in New York City. He received his undergraduate degree in studio arts from the University of Minnesota and his MFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he was the recipient of the Paula Rhodes Memorial Award.

(photo by Peter Ross @peterrossportraits)