Matteo Baroni (Florence, 1977) is an Italian artist. His work revolves around different sculpture forms, focusing on the recycling of scrap metal.
Italian sculptor Matteo Baroni held his first exhibition in London at Thomas Williams Fine Art in 2009. His sculptures are created out of scrap metal but he does not conform to the current norms of “found-object” installations.
Instead he carefully bends and twists the metal pieces to create powerful representations of the human form, some at life size. Threading through all the work is an astonishing achievement of balance – even the largest stand perfectly without support.
Baroni works counter to the accepted trends in contemporary sculpture which has depended on the dictatorship of the accidental and conceptual. Instead he has made a virtue of his ability to transform crude and abandoned material into works of vision.
Fragments of copper sheet are welded onto an iron framework. The surface of the metal varies from the untouched rust-covered state in which they are found to the more finished condition that has developed as much from the accident of handling as by design. Scorch-marks from the welding add to the pathos and humanity of the figures, as if alluding to the paint of the human condition.