Americana

Matthew Zivich is a professor of art at Saginaw Valley State University. He attended the University of Michigan's art department for a B.S. in Design degree and Indiana University for his M.F.A. degree in painting and sculpture in 1964. While at Indiana, Matthew was a pupil of the late artist, William Bailey, a former assistant to Josef Albers at Yale.

Matthew Zivich has been an active artist in drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture since high school and was first awarded the one-time Leonard Bocour prize for printmaking in graduate school at Indiana. His artworks have been shown in numerous competitive art exhibitions mostly in Michigan with yearly shows in Midland, Flint, Bloomfield Hills/Birmingham, Detroit, and Ann Arbor art centers, galleries, and museums.

The exhibition “Americana” is a powerful exploration of how the past is remembered and reinterpreted. Zivich’s artwork provides a thought-provoking confrontation of American military history, a genre that may not be seen as popular today. Through his artwork, the artist brings to light the importance of recognizing the impact of history on our present lives and the world around us.  “Americana” uses the traditional genre of historical paintings and reinterprets it to create a contemporary narrative.