Matthew Colaizzo

Eroded Aggregate Piles at Gypsum Ranch Gravel and Concrete-Gypsum, Colorado

2018, woodblock print, 50” x 76”

Matthew Colaizzo’s prints document American landscapes that have been shaped by extractive industry, raising questions about notions of naturalness and artificiality. Here, the depicted “mountains” are actually piles of mined construction materials, and Colaizzo intentionally reveals the seams between the woodblock’s strips of lumber to remind viewers of trees’ human processing and commodification. Colaizzo’s work illuminates the extent to which humans have manipulated the natural world and urges us to consider the constructedness of our own everyday environments.