【Talk】The Break of Existence: The Art of Dislocation

Introduction

Yu-Hsiu Museum of Art is pleased to present a solo exhibition by American artist Tony Matelli, titled Arrangement. Featuring dozens of hyperrealist sculptures that challenge everyday norms, Matelli’s works encourage reflection through a dissonant and disarranged style. Through his art of dislocation, the artist separates the essence of reality, prompting viewers to reflect on or re-examine existence and situations in the modern world.

In this talk, Matelli will discuss his key series and the creative intent behind them. The event also features a dialogue with independent curator Lin Yu-Hsuan, who has curated Safe Room at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, and Passing Through at the New Taipei City Art Museum’s outdoor park. A grantee of the National Cultural and Arts Foundation’s “Production Grants to Independent Curators,” Lin’s curatorial work often focuses on bodily perception, spatial experience, human conditions, and contemporary crises. Through his perspective and experiences, we look forward to fostering a thought-provoking dialogue between the artist and the curator.

Program
13:45-14:00 Registration and seating
14:00-14:10 Opening remarks by the moderator
14:10-14:50 Artist presentation
14:50-15:30 Artist-moderator dialogue

Moderator

Lin Yu-Hsuan, born in 1994. He graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts with an MFA in producing culture and curating. Yu-Hsuan currently lives and works in Taipei as an independent curator. His past curatorial projects have focused on the ecological structure of art and social issues. In recent years, he has been thinking about how we coexist with disasters (natural, man-made, and political) through curation, the planning and imagination of different places, and the political relationships between people and spaces in this context.

Lin’s curatorial practices included Safe Room (Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, 2025) , Passing Through (New Taipei City Art Museum, 2025), The 25-Hour Days(Keelung Museum, Keelung, 2024), Measured in Feet (Hong-gah Museum, Taipei, 2023), I use my body to draw an island (Taoyuan Museum, Taoyuan, 2023), Into a Compound Scene (New Taipei Gallery, New Taipei, 2023), Notes for Tomorrow(2022,The Cube Project Space), Detour (Taipei Artist Village, Taipei, 2021), Guerrillas (VT Artsalon, Taipei, 2018), The Taipei Dream (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2018), Notice of Removal (Sian-Guang 2nd Village, Taoyuan, 2018), Pigs don't Fly (Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, 2018), Aerobraking (The Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung, 2017), and Inexpressible Signs of Subjects and Mediums Archeology (Yo-Chang Art Museum, Taipei, 2017). In 2019 he initiated the discussions: The Demand from Young Artists in VT Artsalon (Taipei) and Sin-Pink Pier (Kaohsiung), and published a series of articles on ARTouch. He was the curatorial assistant of Assembly of Communities: MIX (Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taipei, 2020) and Mille-feuille de camélia (ARKO Art Center, Seoul, 2016). He also chaired the research project Curating and Art Organizations in Taiwan: A Proposal of Empowerment in Curating. In 2024, he also published the book "The Path Ahead: Common Practices through Three Curations." He has received the 2024 500young Third Curatorial Award and he was the winner of Taishin Arts Award Quarterly Nomination(2023), Curator’s Incubator Program @ Museums (NCAF, 2021), Call for Curatorial Proposals (TCAC, 2022), and the Curator Residency Program (Tokyo Arts and Space, 2023).

Artist

Tony Matelli (b. 1971, Chicago) earned his BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 1993, followed by his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 1995. He is currently based in New York.

In 1991, Matelli participated in the Alliance of Independent Colleges of Art – Independent Study in New York and received the NYFA Artist Fellowship in 1998. His work is included in prestigious collections worldwide, including the ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art (Denmark), Bergen Kunstmuseum (Norway), Bonnier Collection (Stockholm, Sweden), CCA Andratx (Mallorca, Spain), Altoids Collection at the New Museum (New York, USA), The Cultural Foundation Ekaterina (Moscow, Russia), FRAC Bordeaux (France), Mudam Luxembourg, Museum Ludwig (Cologne, Germany), and He Art Museum (Guangdong, China), among others.

Matelli has extensive solo exhibition experience, including the Yu-Hsiu Museum of Art (Nantou, 2025), Maruani Mercier Gallery (Brussels, 2023; New York, 2021), Andréhn-Schiptjenko Gallery (Paris, 2023), Nino Mier (Los Angeles, 2022), Alone Gallery (New York, 2020), Andréhn-Schiptjenko Gallery (Stockholm, 2019), Pilevneli Gallery (Istanbul, 2018), Real Estate Fine Art (New York, 2018), Marlborough Contemporary (London, 2017), and more. He has been featured in various major group exhibitions, such as 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Sculpture (Tampere Art Museum, Finland, 2024) and Reshaped Reality: 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Sculpture (Palazzo Bonaparte, Italy, 2024). He has also shown at other prestigious venues, including the Singer Museum Laren (Netherlands, 2024), Hamburger Kunsthalle (Germany, 2024), and others.

While often classified as hyperrealist, Matelli’s sculpture in fact showcases a boundless, distinct style that moves toward a self-exploratory, dialectic space where existential questions arise. Through highly refined craftsmanship in depicting his subjects and presenting clear, well-defined themes, he gains viewers’ trust and directly invites their engagement, encouraging them to confront and interpret the ideas and values expressed in his works. This fosters a personal connection and understanding rooted in their individual life experiences. Drawing from everyday feelings and emotions, Matelli’s art externalizes his own rebellious spirit. Rather than critiquing systems or using his works as vessels for theoretical concepts and ideologies, what he seeks to achieve is simply to allow his art, imbued with a Romantic spirit, to forge an inner connection between his creations and the audience.