Tony Matelli

Tony Matelli (born 1971) is an American sculptor, who has gained recognition for his hyper-realistic artworks, which utilize various techniques and materials. One of his best known works is Sleepwalker.

Born in Chicago, Matelli received his BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in 1993 and his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1995. Lives and works in New York City.

In 2017 Matelli created the sculpture "Hera" for and exhibited the work at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut as part of their "Main Street Sculpture" series.

Incorporating figurative, botanical, and abstract forms in his sculpture, Tony Matelli creates uncanny objects that are both unsettling and comical. His bronze sculptures feature ropes frozen in mid-air, as if the ropes were dropped on a plinth and cast just before collapsing into inert coils. Other works rely on unusual juxtapositions, such as his weeds series in which plants sprout from the space between gallery walls and floors. By defying gravity and manipulating optics, Matelli offers viewers a renewed perspective on familiar objects and appearances, transforming reality into something novel. Each of Matelli’s artworks carries a provocative element, serving as a protest against established norms and conventions. Across his oeuvre, and particularly in his mirror paintings, Matelli discards traditional genre categories in favor of experiential concerns. “I like sculpture because it’s unwieldy, and there is a resistance to decoration in sculpture that I like,” Matelli has said. “Genres are at the service of ideas, not the other way around.” Described as anti-monuments, his sculptures redefine the tradition of American hyperrealism, exploring themes of loneliness, vulnerability, resilience, and resistance against adverse circumstances.

Education

Sleepwalker Most of the sculptor's notoriety has arisen from his work Sleepwalker and the placement of the work therein. First publicly installed outside Wellesley College - an all women's school - the sculpture came under attack both in words and deed. The work was created for display in time with his solo exhibition at Wellesley's Davis Museum, titled "New Gravity”. Some students reaction to the work was similar to that of Anthony Gormley's figure placed near a ledge on the Empire State Building being called in to emergency services as a jumper; they thought it was a stumbling invasive drunk or otherwise a perpetrator. A petition was then started demanding removal of the work and, as reported by The New York Times, garnered over five hundred signatures, with the organizers stating that it had become “a source of apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault for some members of our campus community.” Matelli responded stating.."If you have bad feelings toward this and it’s triggering you, you need to seek sympathy, you need to seek help....”. In 2014 the sculpture was vandalized by spraying yellow paint on it. In the end the sculpture stayed for the course of the exhibition and the debate continued online, ending in over one thousand signatures asking for the work's removal on change.org.

Media coverage of the Sleepwalker at Wellesley started via a local blog, The Swellesley Report, got picked up in Boston media, and then was communicated via wire services. Over several waves of the developing controversy, over 5000 articles in over 96 countries in multiple languages were identified. The media reaction was unanticipated by the artist, the media relations officer, and the museum.

During the spring and summer of 2016 the sculpture was exhibited along New York City's Highline Park with continued debate and the great interest of onlookers.

Solo exhibitions

Fellowships 1999 New York Foundation for the Arts, Fellowship in Sculpture

Public collections

ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, DenmarkARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, DenmarkAkzo Nobel Art FoundationBergen Kunstmuseum, Bergen, NorwayBonnier Collection, Stockholm, SwedenCCA Andratx, Majorca, SpainCranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook, MICURIOUSLY STRONG Altoids Collection, (New Museum) New York, NYThe Cultural Foundation Ekaterina, Moscow, RussiaThe Davis Museum, Wellesley, MAFLAG Art Foundation, New York, NYFundacion La Caixa Madrid, SpainFRAC Bordeaux, FranceMagasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm, SwedenMIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MAMudam Luxembourg, LuxembourgMusee d’arte Contemporain Montreal, CanadaMuseum Ludwig, Cologne, GermanyMuseum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New ZealandMuseum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, NetherlandsPhilbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OKNational Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, RussiaSkive New Art Museum SNYK, Copenhagen, DenmarkSundsvalls Kommun, Sundsvall, SwedenUppsala Konstmusuem, Uppsala, Sweden