Practiced Play

Practiced Play serves as an extension of Russo’s collaboration-informed, inquiry-driven studio practice. The construction of the space calls for the viewer to become a hands-on collaborator in engaging and activating the objects that make up this new body of work. Centralized around a long table with varying heights and over a hundred foam, resin, and cement objects strewn on shelves throughout the gallery, visitors are asked to delve into a participatory process of play and investigation.

Practiced Play invites its participants to notice how, with some tactile study, an object’s history may become evident in its form. Objects that seem unidentifiable can be handled intuitively. Combinations, arrangements, and collaborations expand the perceived limits of engagement and give rise to a childlike sense of curiosity.

Artist

Matthew Russo (b. 1996, Worcester, MA; lives and works in Washington, DC) earned his his MFA from American University, Washington, DC (2020), and BFA in Painting from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, Old Lyme, CT (2018).