Matthew Mazzotta

Matthew Mazzotta (born March 28, 1977) is an American social practice artist. Mazzotta grew up in Canton, New York, and works internationally. Mazzotta is a 2018 Loeb fellow at Harvard University and a 2019 Guggenheim fellow.

Mazzotta participated in the exhibition “PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity” at the U.S. Pavilion of the 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2025.

Education Mazzotta received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Program in Art, Culture, and Technology. He was a recipient of 2017-18 Loeb Fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Design and was a 2019-20 Guggenheim Fellow.

Work

Outdoor Living Room (Ongoing) Mazzotta is known for his community-engaged process for developing public art concepts.

Project Park Spark Project Park Spark (2012) is a dog waste powered streetlight installed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It features a miniature methane digester which feeds methane into an old fashioned gas streetlight.

Cloud House Cloud House (2016) is an art installation consisting of a house-like structure built from recycled wood and tin. Inside, it contains two rocking chairs, while a large cloud shaped sculpture is suspended over roof of the structure. When visitors sit in the rocking chairs, they activate the cloud and water falls from the cloud onto the tin roof, creating the soothing sounds of rain on a tin roof.

Storefront Theater The Storefront Theater (2016) is an art installation and community center in Lyons, Nebraska. It re-conceptualizes the facade of an abandoned building to fold down into a theater that seats 80, transforming the town's main street into an outdoor theater. Before Mazzotta acquired the property, it was an empty lot with a street fronting facade.

Steeped in Exploration Steeped in Exploration (2010)

HOME HOME (known as Phoebe the Flamingo) (2022) is a public work of art located at the Central Terminal of Tampa International Airport. It depicts a hyperrealistic flamingo with its head and feet submerged, as if wading through water. The exaggerated scale of the flamingo in HOME puts the "lives of these birds in the focus, and puts us, as humans, in awe as they tower above us, reminding us that we all share the same home."

RISING TOGETHER (2025) RISING TOGETHER is a large, barn-like public artwork and community gathering space, sited on the campus of the National Western Center in Denver, Colorado. Functionally, the artwork is a programmable space intended to host poetry readings, classes, music, dancing, and other community-desired activities. The painted mural on the roof of the structure, titled Sacred Threads, is a collaboration with Denver muralist Bimmer Torres.

The dedication day, June 14, 2025, opened with a blessing of the artworks by Grupo Tlaloc Danza Azteca, including a traditional Aztec dance performance, and closed with a live performance by Los Mocochetes in the barn structure. The piece’s slanted steel beams evokes the barn raising, a community event in which people contribute their strength for a common goal. Rudi Cerri, Public Art Program Manager for Denver Arts and Venues, describes the artwork as “a beautiful new space where community comes together.” RISING TOGETHER is part of a broader expansion of Denver's public art collection tied to the National Western Center's redevelopment.

RISE (2025) RISE is a monumental, kinetic sculpture of a jellyfish at San Diego International Airport Terminal 1 arrivals area. It is constructed from painted stainless steel and an architectural mesh material called Kaynemaile, originally developed by Kayne Horsham, the armor, weapons, and creatures art director for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

The sculpture's canopy is composed of thousands of interconnected rings that shimmer and sway in the wind, evoking the movement of marine life underwater. It is modeled after the purple-striped jellyfish (Chrysaora colorata), an aquatic species often found off the coast of San Diego.

Mazzotta picked the jellyfish after consulting with researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography about the region's marine biology. He selected the sculpture’s colors to match the hues of a San Diego coastal sunset, rather than the jellyfish's natural tones.

Mazzotta describes the title, “RISE,” as a reminder that coastal communities need to be “keeping eyes on climate change and sea levels.” The sculpture hints at the future impact of climate change on a coastal airport. He says “We have to keep our eye on climate change, sustainability and sea level rise,” otherwise “one day a jellyfish could be in the same location.” 2023 CodaWORX Award, People’s Choice Award 2020 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship: Craft/Sculpture

2018

"Architecture Project of the year" - Dezeen Awards at Tate Modern

Architizer A+ Award in the category of "Architecture + Community" Harpo Foundation Grant for Visual Artists

2017

World Architecture News WAN Awards in the category of Adaptive Reuse American Architecture Award in the category Museums and Cultural Buildings Congress for the New Urbanism – Charter Award World Architecture Community – 20+10+X Award CODA Awards Merit Award for Public Space – Cloud House