Michael DeLucia


Born in Rochester, New York

Resides in Brooklyn, New York


The world is at a visual crossroads now more than ever. The gray area between virtual and real expands on both sides as our daily lives are inundated with AR, VR, and near-constant screen time. Michael DeLucia’s multi-faceted practice problematizes this divide by activating a sculptural trompe-l’oeil where theoretical solids are made whole and ordinary materials are imbued with digital traces. Employing everything from simple plywood, to readymade industrial items, to intricately carved expanded polystyrene, DeLucia extracts two separate modes of recognition from his audience. On one hand, we see the construction materials, trashcans, and defaced posters as distinctly urban and evocative of a space of continual social movement and growth. But on the other hand, these usually shoddy or rough materials are worked into precise patterns and mathematical shapes that are more at home in rendering software than a worksite. These two sides of DeLucia’s practice expand on the legacy of Minimalism while also tackling today’s hybrid lifestyle. Works like The Round Sound (2012) appear to be peeling advertisements, but a closer look reveals immaculately plotted destruction that allows the CNC machine to stand in for the artist’s hand. Spool (perspective), a drawing from 2011, brings 3D rendering from CAD software into the physical realm by replicating on paper its previously-digital forebearer. Forcing the virtual to collide violently with the inherent physicality of real world matter, DeLucia asks us to reexamine our own understanding of the digital divide.


DeLucia’s sculptural incursions transform the everyday into optically immersive works, but sometimes the quotidian nature of his materials has a more direct relationship to the digital sphere than first realized. In his 2010 untitled public sculpture at Brooklyn’s MetroTech Center, the crisscrossing wires on a series of chainlink fences created a visual shift akin to a moiré pattern on a screen. This presented a physical barrier that begged the audience to dissociate its construction from the bevy of similar fences used around the city while also pushing the analogy of the computer screen as a fence around digital work. By using layers of metal and space, DeLucia crafted a biting commentary on physical and visual barriers. This methodical play with such symbolism is where the artist’s practice thrives. His works’ ability to simultaneously occupy physical and abstract realms so at odds with each other creates a dichotomy flush with evocative energy. By creating a conversation centered in both the urban space and the underlying effects of increasing screentime, the installation brought attention to itself and a wider perspective.


Even in their construction, works like Silver Screen (2012) entice and anticipate the viewer’s camera phone and the inevitable digital capture of the work’s likeness. Using a CNC machine to route and score overlapping mathematical patterns into the surface of the piece, DeLucia plays with simple optical tricks that create moiré patterns of dancing pixels by virtue of the viewing device alone. The screen is expected. The object exists in many realms at once. Though the industrial materials and Platonic solids call back to earlier Minimalist ideas, the artist is explicitly aware that art does not exist in a vacuum. No matter how white the cube of the gallery, each visitor carries with them an access point to wider worlds, both virtual and physical. By coalescing these realms for a brief moment in his artwork, DeLucia invites us to question the nature of our viewing habits and our entrapment within digital systems.


Silver Screen
2012
Routing through enameled plywood
96” x 144” x .75"
Behren’s bin II
2008
EPS Foam, Galvanized steel garbage can
life sized
Green Screen
2012
Routing through enameled plywood
96” x 144” x .75"
Mother’s Milk
2019
Cyanotype
36" x 24"
Transcendental Object
2008
Grocery cart, tinsel garland
37" x 18.5" x 16"
Jug
2021
Milled aluminum plate
36" x 24"
Untitled
2011
Routing through enameled plywood
96" x 96" x .75"
Gorilla no.1
2014
Plotted drawing (graphite on paper)
24" x 18"
UFO
2013
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 96" x .75"
Tank
2019
Milled aluminum plate
23.5" x 20.25"
Gorilla
2014
High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 96" x .75"
Solid Liquid and Gas
2019
Milled aluminum plate
48.5" x 42.75"
The eye of providence
2013
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 68" x 68"
Of Wealth and Taste
2020
Ink on mylar
36" x 24"
Projection
2012
Routed enameled plywood
96" x 68" x 68"
Untitled
2011
Plotted drawing (ink on paper)
24" x 18"
Artifact
2011
Routing through enameled plywood
36" x 36" x 36"
Can
2011
OSB, spray paint
30" x 30" x 48"
Untitled
2019
Cyannotype
36" x 24"
Heavy point
2011
Plotted drawing (graphite on paper)
24" x 18"
The Prismatic effect
2016
Cork and plaster
17.5" x 23" x 6"
Vibration
2011
Routed enameled plywood
96" x 48" x .75"
Fishbowl (green)
2016
Ink on paper
40" x 26"
Variance
2011
Routed enameled plywood
96" x 48" x .75"
Untitled
2009
Plotted drawing(ink on paper)
24" x 18"
Installation view of The Age of Bronze(front right) and Paradise Gate(back left)
2008
Chain Link fence, tinsel garland and EPS foam
Racecar
2007
Wheelbarrows
53” x 48.5” x 28”
Noisebox
2014
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
36" x 36" x 36"
Let's do this another time
2020
Ink on mylar
36" x 24"
Planet of the Apes
2014
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 96" x .75"
Untitled (proposed)
Digital rendering
The sound of music
2016
Ink on mylar
36" x 24"
Untitled (fences)
2009
Chain link fence
12’ x 12’ x 12’
Untitled
2014
High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 48" x .75"
Sky Opened Up
2013
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
48" x 36" x 24"
The Castaway
2014
High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 48" x .75"
Log
2011
Routed enameled plywood
24 x 24 x 48”
Spool (perspective)
2011
Plotted drawing (ink on paper)
24" x 18"
Cylinder (red)
2011
Routed Enameled plywood
96" x 48" x .75"
Crate
2014
High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 96" x .75"
Asteroid
2016
Plotted cyanotype negative (sumi Ink on mylar)
24" x 36"
Untitled
2013
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 96" x .75"
Cloud
2014
High pressure laminate on plywood
24" x 55.5" x 19.75"
Sublimation
2014
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 144" x 1.5"
Barrel
2008
expanded polystyrene, inflatable stools
43 3/4" x 48 7/8" x 48 7/8"
It's just too late right now
2014
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 48" x .75"
Iteration
2012
Routed enameled plywood
96" x 240" x .75"
In the early evening
2014
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 48" x .75"
Untitled
2011
Plotted drawing (ink on paper)
24" x 18"
sublimation
2017
plywood
10" x 6" x 4.5"
Untitled
2011
Plotted drawing (ink on paper)
24" x 18"
The Round Sound
2012
Routing through OSB with found posters
96" x 96" x .75"
Of Primitive Means
2009
bicycle frame, wood, plaster
30" x 60" x 14"
Untitled
2012
Routing through OSB with found posters
96" x 96" x .75"
Fire Hydrant
2009
EPS foam
30" x 12" x 16.5"
Big-shop
2016
Plotted cyanotype negative (sumi Ink on mylar)
24" x 36"
Sweep with Dusters
2008
expanded polystyrene, dusters
47.25" x 34.25" x 52"
Fishbowl
2014
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 96" x .75"
The Portal
2013
Routed enameled plywood
96" x 48" x .75"
The Source
2013
Routed High pressure laminate on plywood
96" x 96" x .75"