Beautiful and Hyper-realistic Sculptures of Tony Matelli

In his first solo exhibit in the U.S., NYC-based artist Tony Matelli has made a foray into surreal, hyper-realistic sculpture.

This exhibit, titled New Gravity, opened February 4th 2014 at Wellesley College's Davis Museum in Massachusetts.

New Gravity, which was installed in two parts, explores the limits of time, space, and gravity. Figures are suspended in air, poised precariously between a dream state and waking life. Windows without views are situated in various locations, their panes obscured by layers of thick, gray paint.

Upended vases and loops of rope dangle from the ceiling, defying physics and suggest an eerie, inverted reality. Walking through the exhibit, viewers experience wonder and bewilderment, along with an underlying feeling of dread.

Of all the pieces on view, Matelli's sculptures of humans evoke the strongest responses. These unnervingly life-like pieces depict scantily dressed men and women in a zombie-like trance. The bronze statues were cast from real people and then meticulously painted to capture every minute detail, right down to eyelashes and fingernails.

It is their apparent vulnerability--their nakedness and unconscious state--that is most unsettling.

Viewers are stricken by a desire to wake these figures and bring them back to lucidity.

At the same time, somewhere in the back of their mind, they wonder: is reality really preferable? Is this dream state more like purgatory or ecstasy? These are questions which Matelli leaves unanswered.

"Sleepwalker," in particular, has raised quite a few eyebrows. The sculpture, which was installed on a lawn inside Wellesley's campus, elicited outrage from hundreds of students. "Sleepwalker" features a paunchy, middle-aged man in his underwear, plodding along the grass. On first inspection, one would certainly take the sculpture as an actual person sleepwalking or lost in a drunken stupor.

It's outdoor placement was meant to arouse curiosity and drive people to visit the gallery, which it did. But it also prompted a whole lot of controversy.

Students went so far as to create a petition to remove the sculpture, claiming that it triggered fears of sexual assault and made passerby uncomfortable.

Though the petition was unsuccessful, it did inspire plenty of thoughtful discussion about the value and intention of such art, which is exactly what Matelli hoped for.

New Gravity is on display until July 20th, 2014.