BIOGRAPHY
Occasionally it’s necessary to take a hard look in the mirror and reckon with the crisp, odd reflection. This can be funny, startling, utterly bizarre, or if we’re lucky, all three. In his uncanny sculptures and paintings, Tony Matelli routinely traffics in all three.
SELECTED WORKS
AWARDS & EDUCATION
Education
1998 New York Foundation of the Arts Grant
1995 M.F.A., Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan
1993 B.F.A., Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Wisconsin
1991 Alliance of Independent Colleges of Art-Independent Study, New York
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
HYPERSENSIBLE, Musee d’Arts de Nantes, Nantes, FR (forthcoming) Pleasure
Principle, François Ghebaly, New York, NY, US
2022
Sausage Party, Rodolphe Janssen, Belgium
Among Friends: Three Views of a Collection, Flag Art Foundation, NY
2021
Under a Loggia, Winter Street/Galería Hilario Galguera, Mexico City, Mexico Unnatural History, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, UK
The Long View: From Conservation to Sustainability: Works from the Bank of America Collection, Haggin Museum, CA
2020
Still Human, Colección SOLO, Madrid, NGV Triennial, National Gallery Victoria, Australia
Reflections, Matt Black x Gana Art, Gana Art Center, Seoul, Korea,
2019
Main Project of the 8th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, curated DmitriTcherniakov, New Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Moves, The Power Station, Dallas, TX Reshaped Reality. 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Sculpture, National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan, La Boverie, Liege, Belgium
Landscapes After Ruskin: Redefining The Sublime, curated by Joel Sternfeld, Grey Art Gallery, New York, NY
2018
People: Figurative Sculpture, Jeffrey Deitch Projects, New York, NY
Objects Like Us, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
The Transported Man, MSU Broad, East Lansing, MI
2017
Like Home, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Wanderlust, The High Line, New York, NY
2016
Ground Control, Art Basel Miami, Miami Beach FL
Beach Public, The Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL
Realisms, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Reshaping Reality. 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Sculpture, Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao, Spain, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, A.C., Mexico
2015
Director’s Choice 7-9-13, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
2013
SOMETHING ABOUT A TREE, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
Personal Structures, 54th International Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2011
Realismus: Das Abenteurer der Wirklichdeit, Kunsthalle Emden, Germany
2010
N’importe Quoi, Musée d’art Contemporain de Lyon, France, 2010
Ferne Nähe, KunstMuseum, Bonn, Germany
2009
Chasing Napoleon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Attention to Detail, curated by Chuck Close, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
2008
Undone, Whitney Museum at Altria, New York, NY
2007
Baroque Biology (with Alexis Rockman), CAC in Cincinnati, OH
Five Billion Years, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2006
Into Me, Out of Me, curated by Klaus Biesenbach, PS1 / MOMA, Long Island City, NY
Fairy Tales Forever, Homage to H.C. Andersen, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
2005
What is Art Good For? 100 x Kunst am Karlsplatz, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria,2004
The Uncanny, Tate Liverpool, curated by Mike Kelley, Liverpool, UK
The Fourth Sex, curated by Francesco Bonami, MOCA, Chicago, IL
2003
Instructions, Kunsthalle Wien, curated by Gerald Matt, Vienna, Austria
PLOP - Recent Projects of the Public Art Fund, curated by Tom Eccles, New York, NY
Liquid Sky-Liquid Concrete, curated by Marc Olivier Wahler, Dijon, France
The Americans, Barbican Center, London, UK
2001
Greater New York, PS1/MOMA, Long Island City, NY
2000
Small World, MOCA, San Diego, CA
Over the Edges: the Corners of Gent, curated by Jan Hoet, S.M.A.K., Gent, Belgium
Beyond the Monument, organized by the the Public Art Fund, Metrotech, Brooklyn, NY Yesterday Begins Tomorrow, curated by Franceso Bonami, Bard College for Curatorial Studies, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY
1998
Pop Surrealism, Aldrich Museum, CT
Spatiotemporal-Works from the Collection 1988-1998, Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthalle, Sweden
To be Real, Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Timelines, Maruani Mercier Gallery, Belgium
2022
Arrangements, Nino Mier Gallery, LA
2021
The Armory, Maruani Mercier Gallery, NY
2020
Abandon, Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Paris, France
Tony Matelli, Alone Gallery, East Hampton, NY
2019
Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Sweden
2018
Hera, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
I hope all is well…, 500 Capp Street, San Francisco, CA
2017
Tony Matelli: New Gravity, The Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Boston, MA
2014
Tony Matelli-A Human Echo, Bergen Kunstmuseum, Bergen, Norway
2013
Tony Matelli: A Human Echo, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
2012
Tony Matelli: Glass of Water, Kunstraum Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
2011
Tony Matelli, Selestat Bienniale, Selestat, France
Abandon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2009
Tony Matelli, Uppsala Kunstmuseum, Uppsala, Sweden
2008
Abandon, Centre d’Arte Santa Monica, Barcelona, Spain
2005
Abandon, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
2004
Fucked and The Oracle, Kunstraum Dornbirn, Dornbirn, Austria,
Abandon, University of Buffalo Art Gallery, New York, NY
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Akzo Nobel Art Foundation, Netherlands
ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj, Denmark
Bergen Kunstmuseum, Bergen, Norway
Bonnier Collection, Stockholm, Sweden
Bank of America Collection CCA, New York
Andratx, Mallorca, Spain
CURIOUSLY STRONG Altoids Collection, (New Museum) New York, NY
ARoS, Aarhus, Denmark
The Cultural Foundation Ekaterina, Moscow, Russia
Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook, MI
FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
Fundacion La Caixa Madrid, Spain
FRAC Bordeaux, France Magasin 3 Stockholm
Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden
McEvoy Foundation of the Arts, San Francisco, CA
MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA
Mudam Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Musee d’arte Contemporain Montreal, Canada
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK
State National Centre of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
Skive New Art Museum SNYK, Copenhagen, Denmark
Sundsvalls Kommun, Sundsvall, Sweden
Uppsala Museum, Uppsala, Sweden
INTERNATIONAL BIENNIALS
Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York, NY
Personal Structures, 54th International Venice Biennale, Venice Italy
Greater New York, PS1/MOMA, Long Island City, NY
RECENT PRESS
Observer
2019-04-04
On Saturday morning in Dallas, artist Tony Matelli gave a talk at the Nasher Sculpture Center about his decades-long career, during which he and his team of assistants have created sculptural works that are mesmerizing in their realism. Some of his most effective pieces take the form of weeds, playfully sprouting up from the floor of gallery spaces. A few years ago, one of Matelli’s seminude Sleepwalker sculptures ignited a firestorm of controversy when it was installed on the grounds of Wellesley college. Some students started a petition to have it removed, calling the work “a source of apprehension, fear and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault.”
The Creative Independent
2017-03-03
