August 27, 2025

ArtCenter College of Design Presents Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits— A New Exhibition of Work by Artist and Alumnus Matthew Rolston

On View September 20 to November 9, 2025
as Part of a Multi-Venue Exhibition

PASADENA, CA - ArtCenter College of Design announces Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits, a site-specific installation debuting a significant triptych from artist and alumnus Matthew Rolston’s most recent series of compelling photographic images.

On view in ArtCenter’s South Campus Oculus Space – at the apex of the new Mullin Transportation Design Center – the exhibition is conceived of as not just an homage to the accomplished mid-career artist, but also as the introduction of an evocative new body of work, one that addresses intertwined narratives of human existence, beauty and the grotesque, and the power of art to connect with the beyond.

Triptych in the Style of an Altarpiece, Palermo, 2013, the focus of the exhibition, rises from the more than fifty portraits Rolston created from his intensive exploration of mummified individuals in the Capuchin Catacombs at the church of Santa Maria della Pace in Palermo, Sicily – the 16th century crypt sometimes referred to as the ‘museum of death’. Representing over three centuries of interment and containing thousands of Palermo’s inhabitants, among them the highest levels of its clergy and the city’s most illustrious citizens, these remarkably preserved, sometimes exquisitely dressed corpses have been displayed for centuries in the ancient crypt’s vaults and wall niches.

In his carefully considered portraits, Rolston reframes these figures not as morbid curiosities but as symbols of beauty, mortality and dignity captured in large-scale, hyper-detailed portraiture that purposefully references the Austrian and Belgian Expressionists Egon Schiele and James Ensor, and the School of London painters, especially Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.

Utilizing what he calls “expressionistic lighting”, Rolston conveys a startling humanity to these preserved bodies, setting the stage for a dynamic interplay of polarities. The artist’s focus is intimate yet magnified to the point of confrontation, his subjects charged with color – opulent blues, deep violets, and dark magentas – adding layers of implication and resonance to their decaying visages.

Correspondingly of interest are the artist’s references to art of the past. For example, the series title, Vanitas, calls back to an historic genre of 17th century Dutch still life painting that portrays symbolic objects, designed to remind us of our mortality and the folly of worldly pursuits. Closely related to memento mori, another centuries-old form of depiction, the name derived from the Latin for “remember you must die,” Rolston’s portraits exemplify the universal, multifaceted reflections on life and death shared throughout time by humankind.

Rolston’s response to the catacombs is itself layered with his response to the location’s art historical significance. Over the years, the Sicilian crypt has lured a diverse group of artists and photographers including Otto Dix, Peter Hujar, Sigmar Polke and Richard Avedon. Rolston first encountered the crypt through Dix’s 1924 watercolor series From the Catacombs in Palermo, created in the shadow of the First World War, when loss and mortality dominated the artist’s vision. In 1963, Hujar entered the catacombs with painter Paul Thek, an encounter that would later infuse his work – meditations on his circle of friends – rendered against the stark presence of death.

Eliciting a surfeit of emotions, from dismay to awe, to reverence, to melancholy, Rolston’s triptych alludes to the iconic configuration of a Christian altarpiece. Suspended in the ample, curved and light-drenched space of the College’s 950 building, a former wind tunnel, the stylized work, presented more in the style of painting than typical photography, conjures a spiritual space, inviting contemplation. With Vanitas, Rolston challenges the limits of death and decomposition to find elegance within the human form, where photography offers us insight into human mortality and the everlasting impulse to seek meaning in our existence.

Matthew Rolston is an American artist, photographer, and director known for iconic portrait photography of cultural figures of our era, the revival and modern expression of Hollywood glamour, and for his detailed approach to art direction and design. Born in Los Angeles, Rolston studied drawing and painting at the Chouinard Art Institute, Otis College of Art & Design and the San Francisco Art Institute. He also studied illustration, photography, imaging and film at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, where in 2006, he received an honorary doctorate. While still a student at ArtCenter, Rolston was ‘discovered’ by American artist Andy Warhol, for Warhol’s celebrity-focused Interview magazine, where he began a successful career in photography. Over the last four decades, Rolston’s photographs have been published prominently in numerous magazines, including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, and over 100 covers of Rolling Stone. Rolston’s photographs have been widely exhibited at museums and institutions including The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, The Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, among others.

Curated by Julie Joyce, Director of ArtCenter Galleries, the presentation of Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits at ArtCenter represents one in a series of four exhibitions across the city of Los Angeles simultaneously presenting different aspects of Rolston’s Vanitas project. At ArtCenter, the three photographs comprising the artist’s triptych depict two mummified children flanking an elderly adult, representing the dichotomies of sacred and secular, youth and age, life and death.

Concurrent with the exhibition, Rolston will be honored with an ArtCenter Lifetime Achievement Award at the College’s 2025 ArtCenter Awards on September 27, recognizing his influential career as an artist, educator and cultural force. While still a student at ArtCenter, Rolston was commissioned by Andy Warhol for Interview magazine, launching a decades-long career in photography and creative direction. He has since become known for both his Hollywood portraiture and conceptual fine art photography projects, including Hollywood Royale (2017), Talking Heads (2014), and Art People (2016). Rolston joins a prestigious group of ArtCenter alumni honored with its Lifetime Achievement Award, including the fine art photographers Hiroshi Sugimoto, Doug Aitken and Lee Friedlander.

During the period of the presentation of Vanitas at ArtCenter, selected works by Rolston are included in the group exhibition Queer Lens: A History of Photography at the Getty Center, under the curatorship of Paul Martineau, Curator of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

The exhibition also coincides with the release of a limited-edition monograph published by Nazraeli Press (2025). A collector’s edition of only 500 copies, this first printing of Matthew Rolston’s Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits is exquisitely crafted, with richly detailed four-color reproduction on grandly scaled clay-coated stock and bound in linen over boards. Presented in a luxurious linen covered clamshell case, the publication features texts by the artist and by American author, photography critic and journalist Philip Gefter, and a foreword excerpted from cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker’s seminal work, The Denial of Death (1973).

For more information about the Vanitas monograph, please visit: https://www.vanitasproject.com/monograph

For more information about Matthew Rolston and Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits, please visit: https://www.vanitasproject.com/

EXHIBITION

VANITAS: THE PALERMO PORTRAITS
Saturday, September 20 through Sunday, November 9, 2025
ArtCenter College of Design (South Campus)
Mullin Transportation Design Center – Oculus Space (2nd Floor)
950 S. Raymond Ave, Pasadena, CA
Hours: Open daily 8 a.m.–7 p.m. (Please check in at the security desk upon arrival.)
FREE

OPENING RECEPTION
Saturday, September 20, 2025, 6–7:30 p.m.
RSVP required

RELATED PROGRAMMING AT ARTCENTER

FULLCIRCLE PRESENTS MATTHEW ROLSTON: ARTCENTER’S 2023 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER
Conversation
Sunday, September 28, 2025, at 11:30 a.m.
ArtCenter College of Design (Hillside Campus)
Ahmanson Auditorium
1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA 91103
FREE with purchase of a Legacy in Motion event general registration or FullCircle Brunch.

Matthew Rolston, a distinguished alumnus of ArtCenter College of Design, has been a leading voice in photography, entertainment, advertising and image-making since beginning his career in 1977 while still a student at the College. In this talk moderated by noted Wall Street Journal, New Yorker and The New York Times journalist and cultural critic Christina Binkley, Rolston will share his history, including his image-making philosophy, the artistic influences that have shaped his career and his lifelong involvement with ArtCenter. He will also discuss his Vanitas project, the subject of a multi-venue exhibition across Los Angeles.

ETERNITY AND DUST: MATTHEW ROLSTON’S VANITAS
Exhibition Talk
Sunday, October 12 at 2 p.m.
ArtCenter College of Design (South Campus)
Mullin Transportation Design Center – Room 230 (2nd Floor)
950 S. Raymond Ave, Pasadena, CA
FREE with RSVP
RSVP requested

Photographer and artist Matthew Rolston engages in conversation with a leading cultural critic to explore Vanitas: The Palermo Portraits, his latest fine art series and limited-edition book from Nazraeli Press. A triptych from this series will be on view in ArtCenter’s South Campus Oculus Space – at the apex of the new Mullin Transportation Design Center – from September 20 through November 9, 2025. Created in the shadowed corridors of Palermo’s Capuchin Catacombs, Vanitas offers an unblinking encounter with centuries-old Christian mummies – faces held in a delicate suspension between life and oblivion. Through painterly hues and sculptural light, Rolston renders them not as relics, but as haunting presences, radiant with memory and loss. The work meditates on the fragility of the flesh, the persistence of devotion, and the mystery of what waits beyond.

The talk concludes with a book signing by the artist.

RELATED EXHIBITIONS – VANITAS: THE PALERMO PORTRAITS*
*ArtCenter is one of four venues showing works from Rolston’s Vanitas project.

Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles
Opening reception, Thursday, September 25 at 7 p.m.
On view thru Saturday, November 8, 2025
148 N. La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA
Hours: Tues-Sat, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
FREE

Daido Moriyama Museum / Daido Star Space, Los Angeles
Opening reception, book launch and artist signing, Tuesday, September 30 at 6:30 p.m.
On view thru Wednesday, October 22, 2025
The Reef, 1933 S. Broadway, Unit 1266, Los Angeles, CA (12th Floor)
Hours: By appointment. Contact studio@matthewrolston.com
FREE

Leica Gallery, Los Angeles
Opening reception, artist talk and book signing, Sunday, October 26 at 1 pm
On view thru Sunday, November 2, 2025
8783 Beverly Blvd, West Hollywood CA
Hours: Mon-Sat, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
FREE

About ArtCenter College of Design
Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in a wide variety of industrial design disciplines as well as visual and applied arts. Renowned for both its ties to industry and its social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College’s long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live, and important issues in our society.

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