Matthew Kaplowitz

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Matthew Kaplowitz was born and raised in Queens, New York. At 18 months old, he created his first painting, an interpretation of the classical song “Peter and the Wolf” using watercolors. Learning about art in a rush, he then created many murals on his walls in wax mediums. The urge to create was quickly quelled by his parents urge to destroy, thus making these murals very rare (so rare they do not exist). Continuing his exploration of mixed media works at this young age, he also began to discover comic books. Tomes of work were created during these early times, influenced heavily by John Romita Jr, Jack Kirby and Erik Larsen. Difficulties appeared upon realizing that he could not read and was forced to stare at the pictures until first grade. In contrast to his comics, Matthew also began to learn about the old masters, including his favorites at the time, Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet. Continuing his Elementary school education, Matthew Kaplowitz created many programs for school events and painted backgrounds for plays. During this time he discovered his joy of reading and writing and thus added a new dimension to his comics. A dimension that no longer required him standing over the reader’s shoulder, pointing to the page and explaining what was happening. In Middle school, not much exciting happened. That is why it is Middle school and not High school. During this time period, Matthew began taking many art classes outside of school to broaden his horizons, including a class in animation and life drawing classes which continued through High School. In High school, Matthew continued his artistic ventures, which included founding a Painting Club at his school, as well as becoming president of the poetry club and publishing two magazines during his reign. He attended the Pratt Institute at Munson Williams Proctor for two years before being filtered into the main Pratt Campus in his junior year. There he earned his BFA in Illustration. Upon graduating, he has begun his struggle to earn a living through his art while staying true to his pillars of “Mattitude”.

located in: Queens, NY