Fundamental Unity Among All Elements – Abstract Art Works by Landon Metz

A snapshot inside Landon Metz’s New York studio, photographed by Clement Pascal

I seem to have become quite obsessed with artists that like to mix their use of media and experiment with different ideas on a canvas, or off a canvas for that matter. This is definitely one of the reasons why I’ve always been drawn to the work of Alexander Calder, his creativity touched on a variety of mediums, including drawing, painting, sculpture, to building small and large scale mobiles, he basically made the world his canvas. I think there’s some great young creatives who’re following a similar pattern when it comes to abstract art, not necessarily producing sculpture but thinking outside the box in terms of a concept.

For example I came across Ethan Cook‘s woven paintings, rather than use outside materials to alter the canvas some of his latest work looks at the surface itself as the medium. This is quite appealing to me, instead of examining a layer on top of the canvas you’re looking at the body itself. Another artist who I came across working on with a similar wavelength is Landon Metz, his most recent work that you can see here includes a sequence of paintings rendered in pigmented liquid dye on unprimed canvas.

Interestingly Metz builds all of his own canvases by hand at his studio in New York, quite clear to see on Where They Create photographed by Paul Barbera a few years back. He constructs these in specific sizes, measured to share a common mathematical ratio. These measurements are meant to offer a good physical relationship with the viewer in terms of scale, being small enough to decipher but large enough that the canvas can house broad strokes and striking shapes of colour. What struck me is that visually these are simple paintings, in the sense that there’s a lot of white space and then individual colours that pop out, but still somehow the elements function together brilliantly. I especially like it when the colour bleeds off the canvas. Both vibrant and playful.

Although work like this is often designed for a gallery setting, I can really imagine these works of art in a home. They have a great balance and would be easy to revolve around on a daily basis. I hope you like them and will check out his website for more. Oh, and if you have a spare minute I’d recommend reading this piece written by Christopher Schreck on Metz’s work, it’s a nice read.

landonmetz.com

Untitled, 2014, Dye and canvas, 80 x 64 inches

Untitled, 2014, Dye and canvas, 80 x 64 inches

Inside Landon Metz’s studio, photographed by Paul Barbera

Untitled, 2014, Dye and canvas, 40 x 32 inches

Inside Landon Metz’s studio, photographed by Paul Barbera

Untitled, 2014, Dye and canvas, 80 x 64 inches

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