Matelli studied at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and received his M.F.A. from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1995. Beginning his early career in Jeff Koons’s studio, he gained a deep understanding of material precision and conceptual discipline. Over more than twenty-five years of practice, he has developed a distinctive sculptural language that merges psychological tension with understated humor, using meticulous craftsmanship to evoke both recognition and unease.

Working across sculpture, installation, and mixed media, Matelli constructs scenes where reality seems momentarily suspended: weeds sprouting through gallery floors, ropes floating in midair, or human figures frozen in fragile motion. His works blur the line between the ordinary and the surreal, revealing the quiet absurdities of existence.

Though grounded in realism, Matelli’s art is less about imitation than about attention — a way of seeing that magnifies fragility, decay, and persistence. His sculptures, often described as anti-monuments, reinterpret the traditions of American hyperrealism through introspection rather than spectacle, transforming precision into an instrument of empathy and doubt.