Set Up for Success: Matthew Bacher
Meet SDSU students and recent graduates whose impressive resumes forecast bright futures.
“I have this romanticized idea of what an artist should be.”
This article is one of five student profiles published in the summer 2017 issue of 360: The Magazine of San Diego State University.
Artist Matthew Bacher realized early on that he didn’t fit in the New York City tattoo scene. While other tattoo artists hustled to make money, Bacher worked the overnight shift so he could attend community college during the day. He insisted on having Thursdays off to visit the galleries, where he met other artists.
And then—a breakthrough. He won a scholarship to attend a bronze sculpture workshop at the Modern Art Foundry in Astoria, Queens, a prominent source of landmark urban sculpture.
When Bacher’s partner was accepted into San Diego State University’s graduate program in applied psychology, he relocated with her and also enrolled. He became vice president and curator of the student art club; showed his paintings at the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library in La Jolla; collaborated with Professor Eva Struble for an exhibit at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park; and tried his hand at furniture design in a class taught by Professor Matthew Hebert.
Through Hebert’s intervention, Wilsonart, a national manufacturer of laminate and other surfaces, provided guidance and materials for the students to create original furniture. Last month, the company also flew six students (and their work) to New York for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and chose Bacher’s chair, “A Piece of Tlaltecuhtli,” as the winner of its annual competition. Now a promising young artist, Bacher continues to experiment and excel.
“At SDSU, I’m working to learn some of the things school doesn’t teach, which is how an artist survives.”
