Meanwhile, at Nino Meir, we have a similar sculptural exertion in the botanical, this time as a remedy of doldrum vanity in Mr. Tony Matelli’s Arrangements. For what else is floral décor but a means of imbuing a vacuous space with vacuole splendor? And yet, does plant life display a means or an ends? Shouldn’t the object be treated as something more than household coverup? Mr. Matelli is not necessarily making such a declaration with his inverted, mirrored view of what is common-place utility for plant-life. But with this playfulness, there is the attempt to spark wonder at a novel perspective of the same still-life which the mind can take for granted.

Installation View. Courtesy of Tony Matelli and Nino Mier Gallery.

Installation View. Courtesy of Tony Matelli and Nino Mier Gallery.

Arrangement, 2022
Painted bronze, epoxy
20 x 19 x 22 in
50.8 x 48.3 x 55.9 cm. Courtesy of Tony Matelli and Nino Mier Gallery.

Orchids, sunflowers, etc. are superbly cast in bronze, in a way which impressively brings out a richness of color, as a genuine form of flattery for the original design. There is also the uncanny balance that is presented with an inverted perspective of the still-life. Is this to suggest that disorientation is not necessarily imbalanced? That we do not have an introduction of havoc, but an introduction of insight? How then does this insight impose upon us a necessarily better, i.e. more beautiful world?

Perhaps because of taking the mundane, mediocre attempts at vanity and imposing, not with hostility, but again, a wonder at the non-conventionalism – indeed at the non-conformity; at oddity. It is a statement of original claim, of novelty, to ornament. Not in a way which is devilish, but one which has a greater connotation of toy rather than trickster; of play rather than sinister. It is here where the germ of artistry sprouts: in forming something new to overcome the vanity of existence.

For more information please contact the gallery:

Nino Mier Gallery
Gallery 1 7277 Santa Monica Blvd
info@miergallery.com
+1 (323) 498 5957