ISSUE Project Room celebrates the 20th Anniversary of its Artists-In-Residence (AIR) program throughout 2026 with performances by current residents and returning alumni. This anniversary season highlights AIRs whose work reflects the ongoing evolution of a much broader community of experimental artists who have helped shape ISSUE for over twenty years.
Wednesday, June 17th, at 8pm, ISSUE presents the premiere of three audiovisual compositions by 2010 AIR Matt Mottel. These works bring Mottel’s distinct artistic sensibility into dialogue with formative figures in his life and in New York’s avant-garde, tracing a lineage that is both deeply personal and central to ISSUE’s history.
The compositions reimagine the artwork and ethos of ISSUE founder Suzanne Fiol, who personally selected Mottel for residency in 2010. Finding an early artistic home through Fiol’s mentorship, Mottel developed a practice grounded in interdisciplinary experimentation and close-knit artistic exchange. Reflecting on that experience, Mottel writes, “My AIR project in 2010, Osmotic Imagination, set a lasting trajectory for my life, and I’m grateful to Suzanne, Zach Layton, Lawrence Kumpf, and especially Zev Greenfield for sustaining ISSUE’s spirit and vision. This performance is dedicated to Suzanne Fiol, Steve Dalachinsky and Syeus Mottel.”
Blending archival material, live performance, and digital media, Mottel channels personal history into a layered, time-bending exploration of sound, image, and inheritance. Drawing on Syeus Mottel's photography of 1960s–70s political and cultural movements, alongside the interdisciplinary practices of his “scene parents,” Yuko Otomo and Steve Dalachinsky, these works map an intergenerational network of influence that extends from downtown avant-garde histories to the present moment. This performance offers a convergence of artistic lineages that have shaped ISSUE from its earliest days, underscoring the AIR program’s lasting impact.
ISSUE Members can RSVP to this event for free using their unique code at checkout, and enjoy exclusive access to all limited capacity events.
Matt Mottel is an artist, musician and researcher/writer who enlivens primary source materials and creates collaborative artworks that amplify knowledge and provide access to subterranean culture. Social activism and cultural community are threads that run throughout his extensive body of performances, videos, sculptures, and music. Mottel’s comprehensive artistic foraging stems from his New York City upbringing. In 2015, he collectively levitated Vice Media HQ into the East River in a performance ritual organized by his band Talibam! He is currently a professor of Media Art at both Brooklyn College and New Jersey City University. He was awarded a Social Practice CUNY Fellowship for 2022-2023. He was in residence at The Stone at The New School in April 2024. His most recent work is in collaboration with his wife, artist and educator Nicole Lattuca. Scribble Scores by Parents in the Avant Garde is an intergenerational music and art making program designed by artist Nicole Lattuca and musician Matthew Mottel. Colorful graphic scores prompt experimental musical making for kids and family members who may or may not have musical abilities. They have performed and organized events at The Watermill Center, Yale CCAM, Catskill Arts Space, Soon is Now Festival, and at local schools and libraries. Mottel co-founded TALIBAM! in 2003, with drummer Kevin Shea. They have toured internationally since 2006, releasing albums on ESP-DISK among others. Mottel has performed with Karole Armitage, Rhys Chatham, Cooper-Moore, Yasunao Tone and many others. In 2021, Mottel was invited by the Moers Music Festival as the "Co - Improviser in Residence’’ with Kevin Shea in Moers, Germany. Mottel also staged the art exhibition, “Burnt Truth” which explored the 18th century origin of the Keytar (Mottel's instrument of choice) at Gallery Gundula Gruber, in Vienna.
