Paul Matosic/ Art & Activism

Spanning forty years of professional practice, he has worked in various mediums, exploring numerous techniques. Concentrating mainly on sculpture and assemblage, his work is supported by photography and digital collage, while also embracing the immediacy of music and performance. For many years, he created floor-based installations using a variety of found materials. In his deconstructed new technology work, he utilized disassembled components from obsolete technology—computers, printers, fax machines, and more—carefully taken apart and arranged across the floor to create cityscapes, most often interpreted as dystopian. Similarly, his found object installations, occasionally titled ‘Tipping Point’, incorporated discarded items and hard trash found on the streets of various cities.

He was once invited to give a lecture to students in the art and activism course at the Ontario College of Art. He began by questioning whether he was an activist artist, as he had never previously identified with that label. Following a short coffee break, one of the students stood up and announced that, after a brief discussion, they had decided he was indeed an activist artist.

In another ongoing body of work, he has created digital collages based on banners photographed at various demonstrations and marches. These layered images attempt to capture the dynamics of large crowds and the power of collective voices.

Overall, his work makes use of found and recycled materials—an inherent rejection of consumerist society. However, it is the unpredictability and character of these materials that truly captivate him. Currently, he repurposes offcuts of wood and leftovers from laser cutting to create small-scale architectural sculptural objects, which, when grouped together, form larger works.