Weed (770)
2025
Tony Matelli's Weed (770) is a hyperrealistic painted bronze sculpture depicting a flowering daisy plant with white petals and yellow centers emerging from a floor baseboard junction. As a unique work, this singular piece exemplifies Matelli's signature trompe l'oeil practice of elevating overlooked botanical specimens into uncanny sculptural presences that challenge the boundary between the natural and the artificial. The work is accompanied by a gallery issued Certificate of Authenticity and invites viewers to question perception and the stubborn resilience of nature within institutional settings.
- Medium
- Painted bronze
- Dimensions
Notes
Unique work (not an edition). Signature: accompanied by a certificate of authenticity, not signed. Certificate of Authenticity included, issued by gallery.
Spotted works by Tony Matelli
Artists in conversation
Duane Hanson
American · b. 1925
Hanson created hyperrealistic polyester and fiberglass figures of ordinary Americans that provoked uncanny reactions in viewers, sharing Matelli's commitment to lifelike sculpture that unsettles the boundary between art object and living person.
Ron Mueck
Australian · b. 1958
Mueck produces meticulously detailed figurative sculptures that deploy hyperrealism alongside deliberate distortions of scale to generate psychological unease, closely paralleling Matelli's blend of naturalism and surreal displacement.
John DeAndrea
American · b. 1941
DeAndrea has spent decades casting lifelike human figures in polyester resin with painted surfaces so convincing they provoke double takes, aligning tightly with Matelli's interest in trompe l'oeil illusion and the uncanny presence of the sculpted body.
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