There are artists who make beautiful things and then there are artists who make you rethink what beauty even is. Machine Dazzle does both, often at the same time, and almost always while covered in glitter. A costume designer, performer, sculptor, and all-around creative force, Machine Dazzle (born Matthew Flower) has carved out a space in the art world that defies traditional categories. His work is campy and cerebral, theatrical and deeply emotional, an explosion of color, texture, and storytelling that challenges what art is supposed to be.
From high-profile collaborations to solo museum exhibitions, his career tells the story of someone who refuses to stay in any box. He doesn’t just create art; he performs it, embodies it, and invites others to do the same.
Machine Dazzle was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, and spent time in Houston and Idaho Falls before arriving in New York City in 1994. The city’s raw creative energy suited him. Over the years, he’s worked as a costume and set designer, performer, singer, songwriter, art director, and visual artist, all while staying true to his over-the-top, unapologetic aesthetic.
He became widely known for his work with artist and playwright Taylor Mac, designing the unforgettable costumes for A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. That performance art epic was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and was hailed by critics as one of the most ambitious theatrical projects in modern history. Machine’s designs—wild, massive, layered creations made of everything from tinsel to toys—played a huge role in bringing the performance to life.
Machine Dazzle doesn’t just make things that are big—he makes things that mean something. His work often reflects on identity, queerness, consumerism, environmental collapse, and the stories embedded in everyday objects. He is known for using recycled, found, or donated materials in his designs, transforming what others throw away into pieces that feel mythic and sacred.
This ethos carries into his visual art practice. Whether he’s building sculptural installations or creating AI-generated prints of imagined objects, Machine Dazzle treats every medium as a chance to rewrite the rules of storytelling.
In recent years, Machine Dazzle has stepped out of the theater and into the gallery and museum world, without losing his sense of spectacle.
His first major solo exhibition, Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle, was presented at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in 2022. More than just a show, it was a deeply personal retrospective, celebrating queerness, community, and radical creativity.
That was followed by Soft Serve, a sculptural installation shown at Wasserman Projects in Detroit, running from September 21 to December 14, 2023.
In January 2024, he returned to New York for Obsession and Evidence at AP Space Gallery in Chelsea. This show brought together years of collected materials, costume relics, and AI imagery in a two-week installation that opened with a live procession—equal parts parade and performance art.
He also maintains a studio at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, where he’s participated in group projects like Project 270 and welcomes the public during open house events. He sees Mana as a sanctuary of focus and experimentation, far enough from Manhattan’s chaos to foster uninterrupted creativity.
While his work defies convention, it hasn’t gone unnoticed. In addition to the accolades surrounding his work with Taylor Mac, Machine Dazzle has earned critical acclaim from the New York Times, Artforum, and major arts institutions. His impact isn’t measured in trophies, but in the influence he’s had on queer art, costume design, and contemporary performance.
In many ways, his most significant award is the permission he gives others—especially queer and non-conforming artists—to take up space, to be loud, to be intricate, to be too much.
Every feather, jewel, and fabric scrap Machine Dazzle uses is part of a larger story about joy, survival, absurdity, and beauty. He turns the personal into the universal, the discarded into the divine. Whether on a stage, in a gallery, or on the street, his work asks us to reconsider our relationship with self-expression, material culture, and each other.
