Mary Jo Matsumoto is a contemporary figurative painter based in Southern California. Her paintings move between figures, interiors, pools, tennis courts, and coastal landscapes. Through color, light, and atmosphere, familiar scenes take on a heightened beauty, often edged by melancholy, memory, and psychological pressure. Her work explores identity, family, cultural inheritance, and the instability beneath what first appears idyllic.
Her work has been exhibited at Brea Gallery, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, The Gallery at Green & Stone in London, Daniel Moshi Gallery in Los Angeles, Sol Art Gallery in Dublin, and the Art Students League of New York.
CURRICULUM VITAE
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026
Mixed Feelings: Existing in the Space Between, Brea Gallery, Brea, California
The Gallery at Green & Stone, London Winter Salon, London, UK
2025
The Gallery at Green & Stone, London Summer Exhibition, London, UK
SERENITY, International Juried Exhibition
2024
Made in California, 39th Annual Juried Exhibition, Brea Gallery, Brea, California
2022
Pictures of People, de Young Museum, San Francisco, California
California Inclined: Robert Graham, Larry Cohen, Don Bachardy, Mary Jo Matsumoto, Holly Williams, Daniel Moshi Gallery, Los Angeles, California
PANDEMIC, Sol Art Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2021
GAZE, Arts to Hearts Project, International Exhibition with 30 Women Artists
2019
Group Bronze Show, Art Students League of New York, New York, New York
2015
Group Bronze Show, Art Students League of New York, New York, New York
Group Drawing Show, Art Students League of New York, New York, New York
2014
Postcards From the Edge, Visual AIDS, Luhring Augustine, New York, New York
AWARDS
2019
Red Dot Winner, Best in Show, Art Students League of New York, Group Bronze Show
2015
Blue Dot Winner, Art Students League of New York, Group Bronze Show
PRESS / PUBLICATIONS
The Gallery Companion
Less Than Half
Arts to Hearts Project, GAZE Exhibition Catalog
LINEA: The Artist’s Voice ; page 18