Sally Boon Matthews is a British-born visual artist and educator based in New York City. She received her foundational training in the UK, earning an Art Foundation Degree and a Diploma in Art and Design with Honours from The Arts University Bournemouth (formerly Bournemouth and Poole College of Art). Her graduate studies expanded into the fields of history and philosophy at Boston University and Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Matthews’ work has been exhibited and published internationally, and her visual and written contributions have appeared in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, The New York Times, British Journal of Photography, Penguin Books, and Random House, among others. Exhibition venues include the Cica Museum (South Korea), Santa Barbara Museum of Art, USGalerie Solado (Venezuela), Château de Trousse-Barrière (France), Battersea Museum of Art (UK), and the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (NY).

Her practice has evolved over the past decade into a multidisciplinary inquiry that includes hand-stitching, drawing, painting, bookmaking, and video. Through these diverse media, Matthews explores themes of material memory, inner life, and poetic narrative, often working at the intersection of text and image, embodiment and reflection.

@sallyboonmatthews


Recent and upcoming exhibitions, residencies, projects, and grants include:

2026 Visual Art Residency Arts Itoya, Takeo, Japan

2025 Two-person exhibition. In Between Opposites with Jennifer Formica. York College Gallery, York College, Queens, NY

Group exhibition, York College Gallery, York College, Queens, NY

2024 Visual Artist Residency Studio Kura, Itoshima, Japan

Adelphi University Professional Development Grant

SIAP Arts Council of Northern Ireland.  Visual Artist Grant with choreographer Tina McCauley 

What's it All About? Live performance with Video Installation, Derry Art Night, September 2024

Experimental Loop: International Video Art Festival, Governors Island, NYC

2023 Visual Artist Embroidery Residency Córtex Frontal, Arraiolos, Portugal

Group Exhibition CICA Museum, Gimpo, South Korea. Experimental Video Group Exhibition,  

https://cicamuseum.com/the-value-2023/

2022 Group Exhibition Portraits in Scent.  Olfactory Keller Gallery NYC, NY

hthttps://www.olfactoryartkeller.com/exhibitions/portraits-in-scent

Group Exhibition  Flat File Gallery Online. Lines.

Group Exhibition Re: Discoveries,  Nars Foundation, Brooklyn, NY

Group Exhibition. Perspectives 2022 CICA Museum Gimpo, South Korea 

 https://cicamuseum.com/perspectives-2022/

2021 Group Exhibition: Brooklyn/Seoul. Video Collaboration with Geuryung Lee. BWAC Gallery, Brooklyn, USA

Group Exhibition: Welcome Back, Maggie Peyton Gallery, NY, NY, USA

Group Exhibition: Incubator Gallery, Brooklyn,  USA

Book:  Art and Spirituality by Cosmina Ene

 https://www.thenewyorkoptimist.net/the-seeds-of-creation---art-and-spirituality.html

2020  Interview:  Artists in the Pandemic. Artspiel.org

Group Exhibition:  Line, Flat File Gallery  8x8 Online  

Book: The Seeds of Creation by Cosmina Ene

2019 Threading the Heart Sutra: a Contemplative Arts project with NY Insight Meditation Centre, NYC, USA 

2017, 2018, and 2019  Visual Artist Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Vermont, USA..

2018 Jewish Center for History, NYC, USA Image of Sound audio-visual project. Collaboration with composer Inessa Zaretsky, Live concert performance by Tesla Quartet.

2017 Greenville Fine Arts Center,  NC, USA Image of Sound audio-visual project. Collaboration with composer Inessa Zaretsky, Live concert performance by Tesla Quartet.

https://www.cmscarolina.com/images-and-sound

Warren Wilson College, NC, USA  Image of Sound audio-visual project. Collaboration with composer Inessa Zaretsky, Live concert performance by Tesla Quartet.

Kitteridge Community Arts Center, NC, USA Image of Sound audio-visual project. Collaboration with composer Inessa Zaretsky, Live concert performance by Tesla Quartet.

 Swannanoa Music Festival Artist in Residence, NC, USA  

 PSC-NY Professional Development Grant, 

2016  Invited photographer Governo do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil.  Culture Program 

 ASL Merit Scholarship

2007-present Teaching faculty at CUNY and Adelphi University.