Matt Hoyt

A sculpture of a stick with three parts sticking out of the top
A sculpture of a stick with three parts sticking out of the top

Matt Hoyt, Component Object, 2010. Mixed media, 4 x 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (10. 2 x 6.4 x 6.4 cm), dimensions variable. Collection of the artist

Born in 1975 in Mount Kisco, New York
Lives and Works in Yorktown Heights, New York

Matt Hoyt fashions his small objects over long periods of time, working and reworking them to achieve subtle variations in form, texture, and patina. Although each one is made as a discrete piece, the groupings in which he arranges them for exhibition carry as much significance as the objects themselves; he combines and recombines them in carefully selected compositions on plain, handmade shelves. Every object hints at the familiar—found shards from an archaeological dig or an alien tool with an unknown function—yet they ultimately remain uncannily other. Hoyt’s pieces defy categorization, straddling the line between recognizable and unrecognizable, finished and unfinished, intuitive and conscious, organic and synthetic. Opening a space into all of these in-betweens, these deceptively simple objects draw the viewer in to the artist’s intense, curious world. As he has said, “The pieces are never the execution of a technique nor the expression of any clear and logical idea or concept”; they simply are.