Maurizio Anzeri

(b 1969, United Kingdom. Lives and works in London)

Maurizio Anzeri works in a variety of media including sculpture; photography; drawing and traditional craft techniques. He intricately embroiders directly onto found photographs with coloured thread; in “an alchemic process of obscuring and revealing; erasing and enhancing.” The faces of serious-looking children; sophisticated adults; and prim newlyweds are obscured by intricate threadwork masks; while leaving exposed an eye; a mouth; or an ear. Anzeri's deft handiwork turns vintage portraits and landscapes into surreal; psychologically charged images; while upending the conventions of traditional photography.