Matthew Mazzotta


Matthew Mazzotta is an American social practice artist. Mazzotta grew up in Canton, New York, and works internationally. Mazzotta was a 2019-20 Guggenheim fellow.

Education

Mazzotta received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Program in Art, Culture, and Technology. He was a recipient of 2017-18 Loeb Fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Design and was a 2019-20 Guggenheim Fellow.

Projects

Project Park Spark

Project Park Spark is a dog waste powered streetlight installed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It features a miniature methane digester which feeds methane into an old fashioned gas streetlight.

Cloud House

Cloud House is an art installation consisting of a house-like structure built from recycled wood and tin. Inside, it contains two rocking chairs, while a large cloud shaped sculpture is suspended over roof of the structure. When visitors sit in the rocking chairs, they activate the cloud and water falls from the cloud onto the tin roof, creating the soothing sounds of rain on a tin roof.

Storefront Theater

The Storefront Theater is an art installation and community center in Lyons, Nebraska. It re-conceptualizes the facade of an abandoned building to fold down into a theater that seats 80, transforming the town's main street into an outdoor theater. Before Mazzotta acquired the property, it was an empty lot with a street fronting facade.

Steeped in Exploration

Steeped in Exploration - “A Teahouse without Tea!” – is a socially engaged art project aimed at creating space for dialogues around exploring the “local”, science, public involvement, ecological issues, community building, artists’ sensibilities, bringing criticality to space, and dissecting the systems that make up our “everyday” life.

Awards

;2019
Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship Award - Sculpture/Installation/New Genres
;2018
"Architecture Project of the year" - Dezeen Awards at Tate Modern
Architizer A+ Award in the category of "Architecture + Community"
Harpo Foundation Grant for Visual Artists
;2017
World Architecture News WAN Awards in the category of Adaptive Reuse
American Architecture Award in the category Museums and Cultural Buildings
Congress for the New Urbanism – Charter Award
World Architecture Community – 20+10+X Award
CODA Awards Merit Award for Public Space – Cloud House