About the artist
Matt Joyce is currently a San Diego based artist and woodworker. Growing up in rural Vermont much of his youth was spent experiencing the natural landscape, historical architecture and ways of agrarian life and its economy. Unsurprisingly, this exposure led to a great curiosity of and appreciation for traditional building techniques, sustainable systems, and time spent with nature. In 2017 he received his BFA as a woodworking and furniture design major at the Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. He is currently an MFA candidate at San Diego State University’s School of Art and Design, is San Diego, California. Having lived in both desolately remote and sprawlingly urban environments, the duality between the two is a constant source of exploration, frustration and creative potential in what drives his practice and the ideas behind it. Environmental, installation, and the bio art movements all influence Matts work formally, which otherwise centers around a studio craft practice.
About the craft
Domesticity of the land, degradation of natural ecology and dwindling biological diversification. I believe that now more than ever, these are topics worthy not only of investigation; but more importantly, creative intervention. We have a lot to lose at the hands of societal complacency, which is something I hope to address with my work. I achieve this is by creating situations that activate the relation between objects, materiality and physical location. Furniture is often used as a starting point, either conceptually as part of the form at large, or simply as a source for recycled and accessible material to harvest from.
Despite this, my work is not limited to furniture. I integrate a wide diversity of materials including wood and other natural fibers, living biology and found or manufactured items. Using this array of material’s my goal is to investigate themes of sustainability, commodification, and both ecological and physical dislocation. My interdisciplinary approach to making draws on my experience as a furniture maker, environmentalist, sculptor and agriculturalist to create didactic interpretations of contemporary landscapes and our bodily relation to them.
