Inside the Mathews Sisters’ Bold New Vision for Their Family Collection

For Roselyn and Alexandra Mathews, each museum visit during their childhood was marked by the selection of a new postcard to add to their collection. Daughters of Gilbert and Suzanne Mathews, founders of the Texan lighting giant Lucifer Lighting, the sisters remember each postcard as chapters of their artistic upbringing.

“Whatever memory I have of my childhood, art is a part of it,” Alexandra said to Artsy. “It’s a part of it visually. It’s a part of the actual content of the memory. It’s a part of the travel. [Art is] my parents’ life and much of my family beyond our parents.”

Roselyn and Alexandra were always immersed in a world where art and aesthetics were intrinsic. Lucifer Lighting designs and manufactures the lighting for several premier art museums, such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and SFMOMA, as well as luxury retail spaces including Chanel and Hermès. Art collecting runs throughout the extended family. Their great aunt Louise Reinhardt Smith is honored with a room in the MoMA, and the family’s collection features a dizzying array of artists from Adolph Gottlieb to Alberto Giacometti.

Now 31 and 42, respectively, Roselyn and Alexandra play integral roles in their family business and art collection. Both sisters hold master’s degrees in fine and decorative arts—Roselyn from Sotheby’s Institute of Art and Alexandra from Christie’s Education—and serve as vice president and executive vice president, respectively, for the family firm. “Now, when our parents come to us to ask our opinion on something, we have a little bit more weight on our shoulders,” said Roselyn.

The Mathews family’s love for art stems from their grandparents, Jeanne and Irving Mathews, who started collecting Art Nouveau and Art Deco glass in the 1960s. Their collections, now partly housed at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, inspired their son Gilbert—Roselyn and Alexandra’s father—to develop a lifelong affinity for art of all kinds. He would make his first purchase with Henri Matisse’s Diane (1938), a linocut work that currently hangs in his bathroom and has sparked a lifelong obsession with the French artist that the daughters would come to share.

Meanwhile, their mother, Suzanne, ran a gallery in San Antonio from 1977 to 1988, bringing contemporary artists such as William Scott, Emilio Sanchez, and Kikuo Saito to Texas. Alexandra remembers meeting Francisco Toledo as a child in his Paris-based studio. There, she would color in one of Toledo’s drawings, with both her and the artist printing their names on it. It now hangs in Alexandra’s daughter’s bedroom.

The sisters’ approach to collecting is unmistakably informed by their family’s rigor and attention to quality. “It’s really impressed on me to not get the ‘good deal,’ [but rather to] get what’s in great condition,” noted Alexandra. Their professional upbringing also plays a crucial role. Roselyn, learning from her parents’ expertise in lighting, carefully considers how light impacts each artwork, a lesson she and her sister learned from years of viewing art on the job.

In October 2023, the Mathews family inaugurated the Lucifer Lighting showroom in Tribeca with a curated selection of art from Lehmann Maupin, including works by Catherine Opie and David Salle. Roselyn was enamored by Salle’s Black Eyed Susan with Envy (2002), a massive painting that she championed despite her father’s initial reservations about its risqué nature.

“This must be what it’s like to work at a museum,” said Roselyn, detailing how the showroom allows her and her family to develop a relationship with the artwork. Though the Salle painting was beyond her current budget, she emphasized the importance of showcasing works that cultivate an appreciation for art’s value. Similarly, the showroom features works by Dan Christensen, Ethel Schwabacher, and Yvonne Thomas, provided by Berry Campbell Gallery—and Alexandra has her eyes particularly set on a vibrant painting by Thomas.

The close engagement with the art they admire has been instrumental in shaping Roselyn’s and Alexandra’s own budding collections. After finishing their art degrees and eventually starting to work for Lucifer, they stayed connected to artists and gallerists on the ground level—evident in their first major purchases. Alexandra’s eye for design led her to acquire two Francis Jourdain chairs made in the 1940s that she found at a Paris flea market, while Roselyn purchased Paul Lazono’s Ice Cream (2022) from her friend Elizabeth Joh’s Mexico City gallery, JO-HS.

Roselyn notes that her relationships with artists often come from visiting artist residencies. A current obsession of hers is Indian artist Sagarika Sundaram’s textiles after encountering her work at the Silver Arts Project at 4 World Trade Center earlier this year. At the same residency, her parents encountered and purchased a work from a senior fellow of the residency, Jared Owens.