Faculty

Matthew López-Jensen is a Bronx-based interdisciplinary environmental artist whose projects combine social practice, photography, stewardship, walking, research, and landscape. He received a BA in political science and fine arts from Rice University, and an MFA in photography from the University of Connecticut.

His most recent book, The Work and the Water: Labor and Landscapes Along the Erie Canal (Inventory Press) was published in July 2025. His previous book Park Wonder (Paper Crown Press) was published in 2017. He is a 2018/2019 GIDEST Fellow, 2016 Guggenheim Fellow, and a 2016 grant recipient of the Peter S. Reed Foundation. His projects Park Wonder and The Wilmington Center for the Study of Local Landscape each received support from the National Endowment for the Arts. His solo exhibition, The Sun Returning, was on view in Tokyo, Japan, in early 2017. In 2015 his solo show, Feels Like Real, debuted at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York. He has been commissioned for work by the New York Botanical Garden, Montefiore Hospital, Waterfront Alliance, Highline, Green-Wood Cemetery, City as Living Laboratory, and Brooklyn Bridge Park, among others.

López-Jensen’s work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Gallery of Art, among others. He has participated in residencies with the Erie Canal, the Urban Field Station NYC, Guild Hall, MacDowell, LMCC, ArtBuilt/Queens Museum, Wave Hill, and the Delaware Contemporary among others.

His social practice work is best view on Instagram @mattlopezjensen

www.Jensen-Projects.com

MFA, BA

-  Hennessey, Jackie. “Walk This Way” UCONN Magazine, 14 February 2022.

-  López-Jensen, Matthew. “Tree Love: Street Trees and Stewardship in New York City” terrain.com, 27 July 2021.

-  Kultys, Kelly. “Art and Action on the Bronx River” Fordham Magazine, 22 July 2021.

-  Morgan, KC. “New York City’s street trees have…” inhabitat.com, 12 Oct 2020.

-  Campbell, Lindsay. “Who Takes Care of New York?” thenatureofcities.com, 14 Feb 2020.

-  Betancourt, Manuel. “I am Here: Identity Museums and the Audiences They Serve.” TheCusp.com, 14 Sept 2018.

-  Swayer, Drew. The Sun Placed in the Abyss. Columbus: Columbus Museum of Art, 2016.

-  Tsai, Eugenie. Crossing Brooklyn, Art from Bushwick.... New York: Brooklyn Museum, 2014.