Robert Lorie, more commonly know as “Meatball”, was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He began his art education at Miami-Dade Community College, and then went on to finish at The Museum School of Fine Arts, receiving a Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2006. After graduating, longing for Miami’s weather, he moved back and became immersed in the Miami art scene.

His artwork features sculpture, performance, and installation, and most exhibitions include all three elements at once, in effect creating a complete experience for the viewer. His sculptures are mainly kinetic, and require his or the audience’s participation: “It’s about showing what we can do with our own body,” he says, “…the more subtle conceptual backdrop, coupled with the experience of the work, is what sets it apart.” He has shown in Miami’s Design District, as well Boston, and New York.

Group Exhibitions:

• Collabo Show – Miami, FL -  2009
• The Youth Fair, Bro – Miami, FL, - 2009
• The Hate Show – Miami, FL - 2009
• Mobile Clinic, a cart that rode around during – 2007
• Art Basel, Miami Beach, FL - 2007
• FEAR. Gasp Gallery – Boston, MA -  2005
• At the Mercy of Others; the Politics of Care, Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program Exhibition – New York, NY – 2005
• Student Exhibition – Bass Museum, Miami Beach, FL – 2000

Articles
Energized! Meatball is Miami’s most ‘potentially’ energized artist – Miami Art Guide. May/June Issue 2009.
“It’s difficult to track down preserved images of Lorie’s; this is largely due to the nature of the work he creates. Just to look at these rusty, metal, welded sculptures wouldn’t be enough to get the message. They require participation and performance, and charge the atmosphere in a way you truly experience his message via attendance. These are key elements. The concept of his work has to do with human power; and if you have met the guy, you can see where the inclination comes from – they call him Meatball for a reason.

But it’s not just an extension of his body, nor is it just about jarring the audience. “All art is an extension of humanity,” Meatball says, “the physical side of humanity.” The mining of steel, the use of materials, and all the tools required to do these insane tasks, he says, highlight how efficiently we use energy. With Motor, literally a lawn mower motor welded to four steel legs roughly four feet high, he imbued the piece with one sole purpose: just to spin itself. Like people, he says, it is static in a location, and focused only on sustaining itself for its own purpose. “It’s like the organism that is our lives,” he says, “it’s just [about] feeding it gas so it can spin itself.” It eventually becomes the only reason it exists – something he likens to going to school, getting a job, getting a house nearby that job, and continuing on and on in this manner out of some sort of perceived necessity”     –Miami Art Guide, May/June 2009