Matthew Angelo Harrison

The sculptor Matthew Angelo Harrison is known for his clear block “encapsulations” of found African artifacts that scrutinize and bring a lens to the ineradicable effects of racism and colonialization. With rigorous technical methods, Harrison enshrines the found objects, such as African wooden sculptures and bone, in acrylic resin, plexiglass, and industrial modeling clay that he then sculpts using computer numerical control (CNC) machines. Harrison has also used these manufacturing techniques to encase recent artifacts of the American working class, speaking to labor and inequality, the politics of mass production, and anthropology.