Campus News

Sculptor to give art school lecture

The Lamar Dodd School of Art will present a lecture by New York-based visual artist Tony Matelli Sept. 10 at 5:30 p.m. in Room S151 of the art school. Open free to the public, the lecture is part of the Visiting and Scholar Lecture Series.

Matelli utilizes a variety of materials-from raw meat and paper currency to more conventional materials-to create sculptural works that have been called “bizarre,” “seductive” and “illusory.”

“To laugh at something is a kind of genuine experience,” Matelli said. “I like to be able to get through a kind of artifice that most artworks have-like people are usually in a particularly intellectual space when they’re looking at a work of art-and humor diffuses and complicates that process.”

His realistic sculptures often take up to a year to complete in a process that includes drawings, clay models and a not-insignificant amount of commitment on his part to see the projects through.