DANIEL LANZILOTTA’s art is a celebration of items cast away in the environment. 

Faithfully foraging materials from the crevices of the earth, the self-­entitled ‘plastician’ modifies and plastic welds his findings, spotlighting the potential of plastic waste and fragments of litter. 

Daniel’s foray into environmental awareness started at home. He was engrained with a deep mindful appreciation for food, materials and objects with a myriad of uses. His education in environmental stewardship is inter generational. The notion of waste is antithetical. He learnt early on how to see the potential of matter no matter its expression.

Daniel’s roots and genetic makeup is expressed in his artwork. Born and raised in the Bronx , Daniel says has given him  an education, the ability to absorb from all of humanity. 

“In the American culture, we’ve lost track of what something [really] is.” So says artist Daniel Lanzilotta, who has been materializing his artistic vision by collecting (harvesting) debris, trash, garbage, rubbish, and plastic waste for the past twenty­ five years. 

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor's degree in fine arts, Lanzilotta has honored both his artistic whims and deepest human convictions beginning in his early twenties.

His simplistic philosophy was born on a trip to the Grand Plage in Biarritz, France with his young son, where he was jolted by the prevalence of shoreline garbage. This was when he came to see the potential in these castaway items, and when he decided to use them in order to bring “greater significance to the seemingly insignificant.” 

Marine-­like installations adorn the walls of his atelier in Biarritz, France, Bridgeport, Connecticut and Brooklyn, New York where he showcases the “greater significance” of debris. 

After a tragic personal loss in 2011, he created a show entitled “T­-Frequencies”. A homage to his loss. Creating a dozen ocean debris sculptures. Rather than viewing the archetypes of life and death as opposites, he held them together as a single thought. When one breath runs out, another begins. This is his pattern. 

In solidarity, he breathed soul into these so­called gathered bones by twisting, molding, plastic welding, and restoring them into something new. He called it a sculpture, a totem. He called himself a “plastician.” 

Many sculptures and other pieces followed. He crafted jewelry of all sizes from not only oceans, but street debris ­ found copper, wood, fabrics, metals, all assembled in a compassionately rendered orchestration. He gave it a name: NON-EXTRACTIVE ART. Much like the body lives by the mechanisms of cell and tissue matter, Lanzilotta’s Kafka­esque posit is that the mind’s demanding nature is comprised of precious thoughts and feelings which are essential parts of a complex system of dynamic relationships. 

With a cacophony of collected materials and an espresso closeby, he begins the romantic rescue of his chosen rubbish. Armed only with a toolbox and a steady hand, Lanzilotta has no idea how his next piece will turn out. The materials themselves seem flattened out, yet filled with ideas, but are deeply anemic and increasingly unable to act upon them without his help. To him, even the most miniscule pieces of plastic are absolutely essential, giving and uniquely perfect. He possesses a rare, youthful infatuation with the idea of possibility. In a broad perspective, it is a yearning that will remain long after both creators and viewers of today cease to be. Now and forever, crevices and canyons of the earth will continue to provide possibilities in unexpected places. 

One of his most prized pieces entitled “Hat for Late Summer”. The piece celebrates found discarded plastics, Starbucks stirrers, copper wire, yarn, broom bristles, ikea plastic sheets, plastic bottles, containers, and oyster netting. At his show in Biarritz, the starkly lit piece casts a secondary effect on the wall and floor in its silent shadow. Lanzilotta poignantly points out that he builds shadows. What Lanzilotta does is important because it commemorates the seasons of the soul, drawing connections between ourselves and objects. His art is not only for us. It is not only a marker of his own understanding, but a map for those who follow after us. 

Daniel's art has also been exhibited as well as talks and interviews featured nationally and internationally in  New York,  California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, France, Italy, and Haiti. View a few of them along with his activism projects  on the LECTURES AND ACTIVISM PAGE. 

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