Formerly Miami-based photographer Lee Materazzi is back home for Basel, or at least some of her art is. Images from her new series "Finding Myself at Home," at Quint Contemporary Art's Miami Project booth, show Materazzi embracing peeled sheets of wallpaper; buried, her legs and head stick out of the dirt on either side of a backyard walkway.
In each of the images, Materazzi's body is contorted around some element of her purported home and her face is obscured by same; the trappings of the home reduce its resident to anonymity.
Cultist spoke with Quint's Sarah Trujillo-Porter about Materazzi's blending of media and what can be deduced about the Miami art scene from Materazzi's work.
"From what I can tell, the Miami art scene is always really vibrant," Trujillo-Porter told us. "You see it on the walls, driving around. You can see it everywhere. I didn't see anything in Lee's work that would show me that other than that it is home grown. In Miami, they go out and do it. She goes out and does it. That's what's special about the Miami scene."
Though Materazzi's current work is nominally photographic, her background is in sculpture. Given the way that the images blend photography, sculpture and performance, it's not surprising that Materazzi has been working across media.
"She did an installation for us a couple years ago at a fair," Trujillo-Porter said. "A washing machine with a clothesline. She did laundry with people at the fair."
Fewer people began spontaneously smearing themselves with chocolate sauce and stripping off than you might think. But some of Materazzi's friends and collectors brought laundry to have done. Soon people who had been at the fair were going home and getting their laundry to have Materazzi wash for them.
Trujillo-Porter could not confirm if Materazzi habitually separates darks from lights. But if Materazzi ever does your laundry and turns it pink, we suspect you could call your socks Materazzi originals and it's straight to Southeby's with you, in your finest pink bed sheet toga.
Lee Materazzi's website is leematerazzi.com and Quint Contemporary Art is at quintgallery.com.
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