The Artistic Journey of Matthew Holden Bates
Matthew Holden Bates was born in Washington, D.C. in 1970 into an artistic family in a place of politics. He attended the prestigious Sidwell Friends High School, where he won the art award in his senior year. Bates moved to San Francisco in 1988 to study art at the Academy of Art University. After two formative years, he was encouraged to go to Florence, Italy, where the art of the Renaissance deeply influenced him. His career as an oil painter has spanned three decades, with exhibitions in major cities including New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Paris, Cannes, and Florence. Bates currently resides in Florence, where he has lived since 1992.
