Matt Brackett is a painter who uses traditional techniques to explore themes involving memory, wonder and menace through a contemporary lens. His imagery, while realist in appearance, is derived from completely artificial constructs. Brackett’s themes have touched on familiar memory, near-fatal illness, and in a recent turn, national politics.  

Brackett was born in Berkeley, CA and received a Bachelor's degree in painting from Yale University in 1997 where he was the recipient of the Ethel Childe Walker Prize. His work has been shown nationally in galleries and museums, including the Danforth Museum of Art, MA; The Aqua Wynwood, FL; the Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, CA; The DeCordova Museum, MA; The Merchandise Mart, IL; the Brattleboro Museum, VT; Yale University Art Gallery, CT. He has also been featured in New American Painting’sjuried exhibition in print, issues #38, #56 and #80. 

Brackett is the recipient of numerous awards, including grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the George Sugarman Foundation. He has won a Certificate of Excellence from the American Portrait Society and has held residencies at Yaddo and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Brackett’s work appears in the collection of Wellington Management in Boston, the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, MA, Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, NH, and numerous private collections in the U.S., India, Germany and England.

He lives with his wife and two daughters in Boston.