two and a half avocadoes in a generic white bowl with raised designs, stoneware, underglaze, polymer clay, ink, resin

Matthew Dercole is a ceramic artist and sculptor who works on a small scale, creating realistic yet surreal models of a wide range of subjects. Matthew has studied and honed his craft at institutions throughout the eastern United States, and is currently teaching at the Hartford Art School in West Hartford, Connecticut.

cake slice with white and blue icing on a white plate, ceramic, polymer clay, porcelain slip, ink, resin

I really enjoy the works in Matthew’s recent asexual appetite series. The objects in the series are as beautifully rendered as they are viscerally off-putting. Common food items ranging from a sheet cake to ice cream to avocados are lovingly sculpted, as filled with or composed entirely of earthworms. With each individual worm sculpted and painted in realistic detail, one can almost see the movement of the writhing mass of elongated shapes.

The front page of Matthew's website

In another portfolio gallery of figures and animals, Matthew combines the aforementioned subjects into novel and surreal assemblages, turning racoons and human busts into housing developments, or attaching masses of curly blonde hair to smooth ceramic sculptures.

tree house reminder #1 (surrogate lifestyles of the working class), ceramic, wool, polymer clay, glaze, ink