Thursday, October 20, 2011

Linn Meyers at the Hammer

. . . I am totally enamored of the simplicity of the line. 
We are all familiar with the line. 
We all use it. We all write. It's built into us.
~ Linn Meyers*

Known for her use of massed intricate lines, award-winning artist Linn Meyers (b. 1968) makes large-scale, labor-intensive, site-specific wall drawings, each one as different as possible from the last and each temporary. Her beautiful wall drawings are full of motion and energy, a series of thin, repetitive lines, none perfect, that when completed respond to their space as if always meant to be there. Most recently, I saw Meyers's work at the time being (2010; artist's statement and video) at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. (Collectors, take note: To celebrate its 90th anniversary, the museum commissioned two limited-edition prints by Meyers: a lithograph, printed at The Tamarind Institute in New Mexico, and a serigraph, to be printed at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. Check Meyers's Website for details.)

A solo exhibition of Meyers's Every now. And again., is at The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles until November 6. The creation of the wall drawing, which took Meyers twelve 14-hour days, was filmed for Hammer Projects, a series of exhibitions about the work of emerging artists. In the video below, Meyers talks about her process and techniques while showing us how she created the wall drawing on the lobby wall of the museum. 



Additional videos with Meyers are available at the Hammer's page at Art Babble.

On November 16 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Meyers will be participating with other Washington, D.C., area printmakers in a free public program that complements the museum's exhibition "Multiplicity" opening November 11.
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* Quoted in the Anne Ellegood essay on The Hammer Museum site, from Ellegood's interview with the artist on March 27, 2011.

Images of Meyers's Drawings, Prints, Site-Specific Work


Linn Meyers's Etching in the Collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Also Of Interest

"Linn Meyers: A Very Particular Moment" at American University's The Katzen Arts Center, January 25 - March 13, 2011

"Linn Meyers | the adjacent possible" at G Fine Art Gallery, Washington, D.C., February 19 - March 26, 2011


"Exploring Space With a Mandala", Profile of Linn Meyers at Writing Without Paper, December 31, 2009

Brent Hallard, "In Stillness, and in Motion — Linn Meyers", Visual Discrepancies, December 11, 2008

Glenn McNatt, "Contemporary Drawing Values Meticulous Mark-Making", The Baltimore Sun, January 24, 2007

Video of Linn Meyers at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art

2 comments:

Louise Gallagher said...

What a fabulous process. I love what she says about 'safe' and how mistakes in the studio are hers and hers alone, but on the wall, they must be dealt with so they're no longer mistakes.

Very cool.

Thanks!

Hannah Stephenson said...

I love the Hammer, and miss it a lot---what a great show this would be.