Tony Matelli recently opened his sixth solo exhibition with Andréhn-Schiptjenko gallery in Stockholm, celebrating two decades of their successful collaboration. Continuing his practice of creating minimalist showcases in which the work activates the space around it, and space adds to the importance of each displayed piece, the New York-based artist will introduce four new sculptures and one collage piece.
Marking the opening of the gallery’s new space, the artist introduced a couple of new pieces from, arguably, his most renowned series. Working in a variety of sculptural techniques and materials, his oeuvre displays an uncanny fusion of conceptual clarity and technical expertise, clearly evident in pieces best described as "anti-monuments." Mixing the classical and impactful appearance of stone or marble Roman/Greek sculptures, along with unexpected, mind-bogglingly realistic bronze additions, Matelli creates a glitch in the art matrix that plays with universally accepted rules or conventions.
Placing bread and sausage on a fallen head of a monumental Roman sculpture, adorning the feet of a similar piece with leaves of Romaine lettuce, or covering the familiar statues and busts with fresh fruit or its peel, the presented pieces are sharp commentaries about the recognizable issues of his generation, such as alienation, ambivalence, and decadence. Constantly evolving and perfecting his practice, the bust piece features parts of peeled blood orange, which masterfully captures the eternal freshness of the fruit, along with recreating its delicate inner peel texture. Simultaneously, such a realistic impression of a freshly opened and scattered fruit parts creates a sense of immediacy, adding to the general idea behind the unorthodox mixture of elements. Transcending the borders of Matelli's signature medium, the collage piece included in the show is successfully capturing and expressing a similar sentiment.
The artist recently had another solo show with Pilevneli Gallery in Istanbul, Turkey, and is included in the People group show at Jeffrey Deitch gallery in LA with his classic piece "Female Sleepwalker" from 2007.––Sasha Bogojev
Photos by Jean-Baptiste Béranger / Courtesy of Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm
