Matthew Grabelsky is a native New Yorker, who graduated from Rice University in 2002 with a BA in Art and Art History and a BS in Astrophysics.

He then moved to Florence, Italy, where he spent four years studying the techniques of classical drawing and painting.

He says that "science taught me how to observe the world, and art has allowed me to express my relationship to it."

Since 2006, he has focused on creating paintings that combine the physical world that people see every day with imagery from mythology and dreams.

He places his subjects in urban settings: trains, gritty alleyways, and cosmopolitan cityscapes; then introduces a twist to create a mix of rational and irrational elements.