Dale Mathis was born Dale Charles Mathis in 1972 and raised in Inglewood, California, in a childhood surrounded by gang violence and crime. Art and invention became his refuge early: as a kid, he took apart model cars, planes, and Star Wars replicas, then rebuilt them into his own creations, a self-taught practice now known as kitbashing, but to him it was just wanting to be like MacGyver.
At nineteen, he moved to Las Vegas and worked odd jobs, construction, security, whatever paid, while building a reputation as an artist entirely on word of mouth. That reputation has since carried his work into private collections belonging to Damon Wayans, Criss Angel, Teller, and the Prince of Qatar, and into public collections including St. Jude Children's Hospital.
Mathis now splits his time between Las Vegas and the Philippines, where he runs his second studio, DMSI. His sculptures are unmistakable: large-scale, gear-driven, and mechanically alive, gears turning, lights glowing, metal that genuinely moves, often five feet across and eighty pounds or more. "My art has elements of science fiction and elegance," Mathis has said. "I'd like to think that my pieces make people think, but they also make people smile, no matter if they like them or not."
