Tony Matelli’s three throw blankets for the Normann x Brask Art Collection express the feelings of an artist in distress. The woolen throws are woven enlargements of personal fax messages sent to some of his art dealers in 2003 and made into a series of prints for a solo show in Stockholm in 2008. Although written in a polite manner, the messages convey a strong sense of frustration and desperation: of unreserved artist panic.

In a mix of machine writing, drawings and handwritten notes, the faxes revolve around artistic doldrums, money troubles, and the distorted reality of worrying about unpaid bills whilst being confronted with the excessive wealth of art buyers who shop with extravagant ease. All satirically served up on a backdrop of cheery pastels.

Matelli perpetuates this humorous approach by turning these frantic messages of the struggling artist into a comforting and cozy object. Every little detail, from the ink residues of the printer to the redactions and acts of censorship, are reproduced in the felting, allowing you to comfortably wrap yourself up in a marriage of soft wool and artist’s despair.

Artist Tony Matelli finds inspiration in his daily interactions with the world; in particular, the sometime unharmonious correlation between individual desires and being part of society. Some of the most articulated themes in his work are desolation and defenselessness, put across as a protest or resistance to the unmerited rules and conditions of society. His works, which mostly take shape as hyper-realistic sculptures, are powerful and intense portrayals of despair and decay, but also of humor and hope.

Matelli was born in 1971 in Chicago, Illinois. He currently lives and works in New York City and holds an MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan (1995) and a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design in Wisconsin (1993). Recent solo exhibitions include ‘I hope all is well…’ at 500 Capp Street, San Francisco, California in 2018 and ‘Lapses’ at Pilevneli Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey in 2018.