Landon Metz’s New Work “Feels So Right Now”

Whitewaller heard from Metz at his studio, as he was preparing for the summer show.

WHITEWALLER: What was the starting point for this new body of work that will open at von Bartha in June?

LANDON METZ: The exhibition title, “Feels So Right Now,” comes from this idea of an emotionally charged universal sentiment that is so ubiquitous in society—pop culture, in this case—it takes the form of cultural readymade. I also really like the double entendre that alludes to time and the present. Both of
these concepts are very much alive in the philosophy behind my practice.

WW: How did you arrive at the technique of using dye on unprimed canvas?

LM: The decision to use dye and unprimed canvas is a simple gesture of finding two raw materials that can work together to merge and form a singular conversation.

WW: You work side to side, creating perimeters for the dye. What kind of forms are you shaping?

LM: The shapes are meant to acknowledge my hand as the artist but repeat to a suggested infinitude
and become tools that point beyond themselves.

WW: Installation plays a big role in your work. To what effect will the works be installed at von Bartha? How does your sculpture relate to your paintings?

LM: In many ways, I feel Duchamp’s notion of the reciprocal readymade has become commonplace in our image-centric society, and the iconography of painting is no longer intrinsically tethered to the institution of art. The paintings in my practice are tools to articulate an ecosystem beyond the historical narrative of the medium. Playing around with these motifs in the form of sculpture and sound in this exhibition is a development meant to push the periphery of my work beyond the literal physical space into a broader cultural platform.