In Landon Metz’s (b.1985, Arizona, USA) conceptual practice, painting is used as a tool to draw attention to the phenomenon of sensory experience. His pared-back works on raw canvas, characterised by a single, biomorphic motif in acrylic wash, have a stark simplicity. Watch Metz in his New York studio preparing a new series of paintings for his second solo exhibition with Waddington Custot in London, opening 2024.
As modern society becomes increasingly fast-paced, stress and time paucity are celebrated as signs of diligence and ambition. Relentless streams of images and opinions reach us every day, via multiple channels. Metz’s paintings, without being didactic in any specific sense, propose an alternative mode of being; his open, abstract paintings provide a moment of stillness. Viewers are invited to pause, and to take a moment to reflect on their present surroundings: noting the temperature of the room, of any slight breeze, of their physical and emotional state in that moment. Here Metz interprets the idea of American avant-garde composer John Cage, that in being prompted to listen to ostensible silence, we are able to consciously perceive the ambient noises which are around us at any given moment. For his new exhibition, Metz expands Cage’s idea and applies it spatially.
Film: Oresti Tsonopoulos
Landon Metz at Waddington Custot
21 June–9 August 2024
waddingtoncustot.com
