“. . . Repulsive but evocative is Lee Stoetzel's "McMansion 5," inspired by the American appetite for ever more humongous homes. In his McMansion series, he photographs miniature monstrosities that he builds from McDonald's food and packaging materials; No. 5 is a rustic palazzo with stones made of Chicken McNuggets, windows of plastic drink lids, skylights of sweet and sour sauce containers and a hipped roof of Quarter Pounder boxes. The house sits in dirt made from ground beef flecked with onion.”


March 24, 2006

Art Review

Suburbia Explored at the Katonah Museum of Art's 'I Love the Burbs'

By GRACE GLUECK,

The New York Times

“. . . The show’s most pointed critique of current building trends is Lee Stoetzel’s photographic series of “McMansions.” These are not real houses, but models made of McDonald’s food and packaging.  Seen from a distance, they look like the overbuilt residences they mimic, but on closer inspection the true nature of the materials becomes hilariously clear.”


October 2, 2005

Art Review 

‘Design for Living’

Islip Art Museum

By HELEN HARRISON

The New York Times

“. . .The suburbs used to be considered benign. Now we know better. “Global Suburbia” dips into the suburbs and mines all the conflict therein. Lee

Stoetzel’s almost full-scale pecky-wood sculptural VW bus is one great 

reason to make the trip north.”  Philadelphia Weekly, Roberta Fallon, September 22, 2008 

“I Love the Burbs,” Katonah Museum of Art, 2006, curated by Ellen Keiter

“McMansions get their due drubbing in Lee Stoetzel’s photographs of “mansions” that he constructs from recycled fast foods and their containers.  His life-size wood facsimile of a VW bus seems as much a homage to the optimism of early suburb developers and dwellers as a symbol of the hippie generation that couldn’t wait to escape suburban conformity.. . .”   The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept 14, 2008

Global Suburbia, Abbington Art Center, August 30-November 30, 2008, curated by Sue Spaid

“Design for Living,” Islip Art Museum, 2005, curated by Karen Shaw

“Big Fall,” Mixed Greens, New York, NY,   April 23-May 23, 2009