Iowa-born, LA-based artist Matthias Merkel Hess has a talent to turn ordinary objects into beautiful artifacts. His milk crates and laundry hampers have just been presented in a group show, Material, at Salon 94 Freemans in New York, curated by the fashion designer Duro Olowu. Merkel Hess, who has a background in journalism and worked in the newspaper business for 15 years, is also one of the selected artists of the Venice Beach Biennial, July 13-15, 2012, an experimental off-shoot being staged in conjunction with the Hammer’s next Biennial exhibition, Made in LA, kicking off on June 2, 2012.
Simone Kussatz: You’re an artist who works with different materials. You draw, take photographs, do pottery and ceramics and a bit of conceptional art. What kind of artist do you consider yourself to be, or like to be referred to as being?
Merkel Hess: I'm an artist and a potter. I don't like the word ceramicist, because it ends in "cyst." Since finishing my MFA in 2010, I've mainly worked in clay or in ink or watercolor on paper. I've done other things in the past and won't rule anything out for the future, but those two areas have been a particular focus.
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