Tony Matelli - 2009
Born in 1971 in Chicago, Tony Matelli is a New York-based sculptor known for his painstakingly detailed, resemblant sculptures. Concerned with how we defineourselves as human beings, what constitutes meaningful relationships, and the transience of life, Matelli chronicles these ideas through a playful lens whilst pushing the boundaries of his medium. The result is a subversive dialogue that deepens the conversation surrounding the possibilities of sculpture.
Incorporating figurative, botanical, and abstract forms, his bronze sculptures rely on unusual juxtapositions such as his weeds series in which plants sprout from the spacebetween gallery walls and floors. Across his oeuvre, and particularly in his mirrorpaintings, Matelli discards traditional genre categories in favor of experientialconcerns.
His work has been extensively exhibited in notable institutions including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Uppsala Museum, Sweden, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, The Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA, Kunsthalle, Vienna, and Bergen Kunstmuseum, Norway. His sculpture, Sleepwalker, is one his most iconic works and has been prominentlyfeatured at The High Line in New York and the campus of Wellesley College in Massachusetts.