WHAT’S GOOD: LYDIA RICCI

We first met artist Lydia Ricci through our Tiny Chair Show, and her work has stayed with us ever since. Based in Old City, Ricci makes sculptures from scraps she’s been collecting for decades—old tax forms, broken game pieces, dried-out erasers, and other paper remnants. These castoffs become miniature couches, bras, dishwashers, and cars: familiar products and household objects, rebuilt in miniature.

Ricci grew up with an Italian father who saved nearly everything and a Ukrainian mother who could improvise with whatever was on hand. That sensibility runs through the work, which draws from years of collecting and repurposing. Critic Jerry Saltz has praised her for the range of scales and materials she works in. The sculptures center on everyday objects, reconstructed at small scale with humor, imperfection, and intent.