Artist's Bio
Born in Pennsylvania, Matt Wilt received his Bachelor's degree in Ceramics and Art Education in 1991 from Pennsylvania State University. After completing undergraduate school, Wilt worked for two years at Boston Valley Terra Cotta, an architectural terra cotta restoration firm in Buffalo, New York, where he began to work more extensively with plaster molds and imitative glaze surfaces. He also traveled extensively in Nepal and Thailand prior to pursuing graduate study.

Matt completed his Master of Fine Arts degree at Ohio University, Athens in 1995. He was then awarded The Evelyn Shapiro Foundation Fellowship through The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The city provided a tremendous availability of disposed of items for use in his slip cast and machined looking forms. While working as a Resident Artist at The Clay Studio, Wilt continued to show nationally and internationally and taught at several universities and art schools, including the University of Pennsylvania, Moore College of Art & Design and Arcadia University.

Matt has been the recipient of numerous awards. He has received a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Grant, an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, and several awards in national juried exhibitions. He has been active as a Visiting Artist at schools such as Syracuse University, Tyler School of Art, Wichita State University and Indiana University. Since moving to Illinois in 2002 to become head of the Ceramics Area at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, he has continued to integrate cast ceramic forms with wheel thrown and hand built elements. The objects and their related drawings have often referred to the ceramic tradition of functional devices, but are increasingly becoming more ambiguous in nature.

Artist's Statement
My work is inspired by historical ceramics as well as the flotsam and jetsam of contemporary culture. Moche ceramics of Pre-Columbian Peru are a powerful influence, both technically complex and sculpturally compelling. The richness embodied by these ancient clay vessels drives me to make work that is emotive, reflective of my world-view, and visually demanding of the viewer. Moche artists drew from every facet of life: plants, animals, architecture, the human body, the divine and the mundane of existence. I strive to work in this manner as well, combining objects and forms from the diverse culture and society in which I live, the United States of America in the 21st century. Initially, this approach resulted in vessels derived from street trash such as mufflers and styrofoam cups, buoy forms on the Delaware River, and the urban architecture of Philadelphia.

In recent years my work has become less vessel-oriented, though research into historical ceramics has continued to feed my ideas. Often my forms will seem to suggest a specific function or use, but the use is ambiguous; a hybrid of the known world with a less concrete reality. This newer work also draws from a catalogue of forms that are suggestive in nature. In Philip Rawson's book Ceramics, he refers to memory traces, and the power of forms to evoke thoughts and memories. This is similar to the way we associate colors with emotional states or meanings. By incorporating forms that are symbolic and suggestive, I attempt to engage the viewer in a process of decoding.

Most recently, I have been intrigued by art that synthesizes the human, physical body with the mechanics of the manmade world. This has led me to research the work of Raoul Hausmann, Max Ernst, and Rebecca Horn. Each of these artists reference the body and its uneasy union with the artificial or mechanical. Symbolic forms that I find particularly compelling include the hand and objects used as surrogates for the body: bottle nipples, respirator bags, sex toys, prosthetics. The hand exemplifies the human presence, while the other objects, to varying degrees, distance us from the most human of activities. These forms, as manufactured objects replicating natural functions, act as substitutes for nature. I find this composite of the physical body and the synthetic world simultaneously fascinating and frightening. Through this line of inquiry I am conscious of the connecting threads that link the many disparate elements of history, culture, and what it is to be human.

Artist's Resume
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Matt
Wilt

Instruments

$1200

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Wilt

Wonderland

$4200

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Wilt

For Orwell

$4000

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Wilt

Surrogate

$3600

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Wilt

Decaying Orbit

$3600

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Wilt

Aneurism

$4200

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Wilt

Partial Index

$2000

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Wilt

Insignificant Other

$800

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Wilt

Dive(r)

$3000

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Wilt

Interpret(er)

$3000

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Wilt

Suckle

$2600

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Wilt

Fillers

$2000

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Wilt

(A)Plus

$1200

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Wilt

Taproot

$1800

Matt
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Bowl

$35

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Bowl

$35

Matt
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Bowl

$35

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Bowl

$35

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Tumbler

$40

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Tumbler

$40

Matt
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Lidded Bowl

$60

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Espresso Mug

$35

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
Wilt

Mug

$40

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
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Mug

$40

Matt
Wilt

Mug

$40

Matt
Wilt

Yunomi

$40

Matt
Wilt

Tea Bowl

$35

Matt
Wilt

Tea Bowl

$35

Matt
Wilt

Bowl

$40

Matt
Wilt

Bowl

$40

Matt
Wilt

Bowl

$40

Matt
Wilt

Bowl

$40

Matt
Wilt

Bowl

$40

Matt
Wilt

Bowl

$40

Matt
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Bowl

$40

Matt
Wilt

Bowl

$40

Matt
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Bowl

$40

Matt
Wilt

Bowl

$40

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Large Bowl

$80

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Mug

sold