Matthew Zivich is presently a professor of art at Saginaw Valley State University where he has been employed since 1976. He attended the University of Michigan's art department for a B.S. in Design degree and Indiana University for his M.F.A. degree in painting and sculpture in 1964. While at Indiana, Matthew was a pupil of the late artist, William Bailey, a former assistant to Josef Albers at Yale.

Matthew Zivich has been an active artist in drawing, painting, photography, and sculpture since high school and was first awarded the one-time Leonard Bocour prize for printmaking in graduate school at Indiana. His artworks have been shown in numerous competitive art
exhibitions mostly in Michigan with yearly shows in Midland, Flint, Bloomfield Hills/Birmingham, Detroit, and Ann Arbor art centers, galleries, and museums. He has had numerous one-person shows as well as having participated in numerous group exhibitions. More recently, Matthew has had an exhibition of his "architectural models" at the What Pipeline gallery in Detroit, and other works in the former University of Michigan sponsored Work:Detroit and Work:Ann Arbor galleries. He has been an active participant in the
University of Michigan’s annual alumni show during its existence from 2004 to 2016. Matthew was on the planning committee for the shows and served as its co-chairman for its last four years.

The exhibition “Americana” is a powerful exploration of how the past is remembered and reinterpreted. Zivich’s artwork provides a thought-provoking confrontation of American military history, a genre that may not be seen as popular today. Through his artwork, the artist brings to light the importance of recognizing the impact of history on our present lives and the world around us. “Americana” uses traditional genre of historical paintings and reinterprets it to create a contemporary narrative.