Matt Sesow (born September 10, 1966, Omaha, Nebraska) is a self-taught expressionist painter who lives and paints in Washington, DC. He began painting in 1994, has painted full time since 2001, and has sold more than 17,000 original paintings directly to collectors in more than 40 countries. His work is in the permanent collection of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, was issued as a United Nations postage stamp in 2013, and is the subject of the documentary Join Hands: The Life and Art of Matt Sesow.

Is Matt Sesow a Washington, DC artist?

Yes — for more than thirty years. He started painting in DC in 1994 and works today at Mather Studios, 916 G Street NW, downtown. His DC record includes a 2001 solo show at the Corcoran (“Life’s Little Traumas”), Hill Center solo and two-person shows on Capitol Hill (2017–2019), years of Artomatic, a CreativeMornings/DC talk at Sixth & I (2019), and seventeen Transformer benefit auctions since 2007, with his eighteenth in November 2026. In 2015 the Washington Post profiled him as “a one-handed artist … seizing D.C.’s art world.”

How many paintings has he made, and how often does he paint?

More than 17,000 originals sold since 1994 — on average more than ten finished paintings a week, every week, for over thirty years. He paints nearly every day and posts new work several times a week at new.sesow.com. Few living painters anywhere have placed that many original works directly in collectors’ hands.

What happened to his hand?

In June 1975, when he was eight, he was struck by the propeller of a landing airplane near his family’s home in rural Nebraska. His dominant left hand was amputated. He paints with his right hand; he has said the nightmares about the accident stopped when he began painting in 1994.

Which museums have shown or collected his work?

The American Visionary Art Museum gave him a year-long solo show, “Shock and Awe” (2016–17), and holds his paintings in its permanent collection. His 2021 retrospective “Life and Limb” at Old Dominion University’s Baron and Ellin Gordon Galleries hung more than 225 of his works alongside 13 works by Jean-Michel Basquiat. From 2002 to 2005 two of his paintings toured eleven American museums in “Revelations and Reflections.” The timeline below lists every museum show with sources.

Does he have a gallery? How do I buy a painting?

He has no exclusive gallery and sells directly, as he has since he first sold paintings online in 1995. New paintings: new.sesow.com; smaller works: small.sesow.com; or write to sesow@sesow.com. Studio visits in downtown DC can be arranged by email.

What is the United Nations stamp?

In 2013 the United Nations Postal Administration chose his painting “Dive Bomb” for the “Break Barriers, Open Doors” issue on disability rights, unveiled at UN headquarters on September 23, 2013, in a series with Chuck Close. The stamp story.

What is his connection to Charles Bukowski and Linda King?

He illustrated Bukowski Undigested (2008), poems by Linda King — the sculptor and poet who was Bukowski’s partner in the early 1970s — and in June 2026 was a guest artist at her exhibition in Los Angeles. The full story, with every article.

Can I use this history for research, a paper or an article?

Yes. Every entry is dated and sourced, and the event pages keep complete copies of the original articles with their full text. Each page has a citation line. For interviews, images or anything missing, use the question box below or email sesow@sesow.com.

Matt Sesow | Washington DC Artist — Career History 1966

EARLY LIFE & EDUCATION

1966–1992

1966

1 highlight

MILESTONE

Born September 10, 1966, in Omaha, Nebraska. Second of three siblings. Family later settled near Lincoln/Waverly, Nebraska Full page →

★Born September 10 · 1966Open page

1975

2 highlights

MILESTONE

On the evening of Saturday, June 7, 1975, at age eight, struck by a landing airplane while playing a game of "spud" with a group of children near Eden's Sky Ranch, a grass runway at 112th and Holdrege Streets, Lancaster County, Nebraska. Ran out onto the runway at approximately 8:30 p.m. and was struck by a small aircraft. Left arm severed by the propeller and reattached by a returned Vietnam War veteran surgeon at St. Elizabeth Community Health Center in Lincoln, Nebraska; dominant left hand later amputated due to gangrene. Listed in fair condition. Reported in the Lincoln Evening Journal, Monday, June 9, 1975, page 6: "Boy Struck by Plane Listed in Fair Condition." Father: Frederick Sesow, Rt. 2. This life-altering event became a foundational influence on his later artwork. (Note: some early published biographies list 1974; the artist confirms 1975 and possesses the original newspaper clipping.) Full page →

Matt Sesow

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What one self-taught painter has done

His painting became a UN stamp

A year-long solo show at AVAM

225+ works, shown with 13 Basquiats

His life is a film on Amazon

In the room with Picasso, Kandinsky and Munch

11 museums, 10 states, 3 years

Selling paintings online since 1995

“The saga of Matt Sesow: How a one-handed artist is seizing D.C.’s art world”

“Matt Sesow’s Paint Therapy”

Bologna, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Trebnje

52 solo exhibitions

24 museums

In the United States

Abroad

The national tour, 2002–2005

Thirty years in print

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