About Matthew Metzger
Matthew Metzger is an artist, designer and furniture maker. In his most recent series of paintings he mixes his own paints using natural materials such as limestone, marble, slate, iron, titanium, clays and minerals combined with oils and egg, transforming them into sensorial, abstract images of light, atmosphere and landscape. This combination of raw and natural materials with ethereality and atmosphere presents a tension between materiality and illusion. In this series Metzger continues to explore other tensions and opposites that have marked his past work, like movement and stillness, presence and the void, and transience and permanence. Metzger’s furniture designs embody a quiet yet dramatic presence and speak of the strength of such enduring influences as American modernism and Danish design, but are distinguished by his interpretation of understated beauty, combined materials, and contemporary forms. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio and working with limited machinery, Metzger sources woods from local millers, fashions his metals in local foundries, and develops his own acid patinas, bleaches, and charring techniques
Matthew Metzger (b.1982)
Self-taught (Juris Doctor 2007, University of Cincinnati College of Law)
Selected Exhibitions
2023
Rounding the Circle, Speed Art Museum (Group)
2018
Paintings and Sculpture, Moreman Gallery, Louisville, KY (Solo Show)
New Work, Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (Solo, March 15-April 21)
2017
Elevated, 21C Museum (Group, May 2017-October 2017)
Return to Beauty: Asian Influences on Contemporary Landscape, Cincinnati Art Galleries (Group)
2016
Untitled, Mason Fine Arts, Atlanta, Georgia
Modern Living, The Carnegie, Covington, KY, curated by Matt Distel and Cate Becker (group)
2015
New Paintings, Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio (Solo)
Untitled, Wright Gallery, Kona, Hawaii (Solo)
Architectural Digest Design Show, New York, New York (group)
Transitions, Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio (group)
2014
Atmosphere, Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio (group show)
The Definitive Contemporary Landscape, Covington Arts Center, curated by Daniel Brown (group)
2013
International Painting Annual, Manifest Gallery (group)
Elemental, AGAR, Cincinnati, Ohio (solo)
2012
Conversations in Wood, Fifth Street Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio (two person show)
Selected Awards and Bibliography
2018
Joel Darland, Clear Outlook, Undermain, October 2018
Ekin Ekran, Matthew Metzger: Traversing the Meditative and Experiential, AEQAI, March 2018
2016
Jonathan Kamholtz, OVERWHELMING LANDSCAPES, AEQAI, JANUARY 2016
2015
CityBeat, Kathy Schwartz, Art: Modern Living: Objects and Context, December 2015
WVXU, Anne Arenstein, Interview with Matthew Metzger, May 2015
2014
AEQAI, Jane Durrell, Atmosphere at Miller Gallery, April 2014.
2013
Manifest Gallery, International Painting Annual
Flyway Journal, Five Paintings, Iowa State University
2012
Southwest Art Magazine, 21 Under 31 Artists to Collect, September
Paris Review, Ovid in Tears(with poetry by Jack Gilbert)
PoetsArtists Magazine
The Gorgeous Daily
Supersonic Electronic
public Collections
Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
The Shands Collection
21c Museum Hotel
Monteverdi Gallery
Representation
Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
Wright Gallery, Kona, Hawaii
Designlush, New York City, New York
Writings
Matthew Metzger, "Shinji Turner Yamamoto’s Sidereal Silence, at Weston Art Gallery," AEQAI, april 2016.
Matthew Metzger, "Artist:Body at Lexington Art League," Undermain, March 2016