Walter Matia

Walter T. Matia was born in 1953 in Cleveland, Ohio, and was educated at Williams College in Massachusetts where he earned degrees in biology and art design. Much of his art training was attained during a long apprenticeship in the Exhibits Department of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Since he began casting bronze sculpture in 1980, Matia's work has been exhibited in one-man shows at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, and most recently, the Raymond F. Evans Sporting Art Gallery in Albany, Georgia. He has been a regular participant in the Society of Animal Artists shows, the Easton Waterfowl Festival, and the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition. Walter is a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society, a Master Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists and a Master Wildlife Artist at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum.

His sculptures have toured with various shows to dozens of museums both in the United States and abroad. Numerous parks, gardens, universities, and office buildings display Matia's outdoor sculptures including the United States President's Guest House, Blair House. In 1998, he was commissioned to produce the Merrill Lynch Bull for the exteriors of their regional offices.

Matia has received the National Sculpture Society Gold Medal Award; the Bronze Medal Award Pietro & Alfriedo Montana Memorial Prize; the Society of Animal Artists Leo J. Meiselman Award; the Prix de West Fraser Sculpture Award (2018); the Masters of the American West, Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation Sculpture Award and the James R. Parker Trustee Purchase Award.

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Matia resides in Dickerson, Maryland.