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Kay Metz
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Kay Metz (1932-2018)
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Kathryn "Kay" Metz captures the interplay between light and land, avoiding the representation of each individual rock and tree in favor of portraying the essence of land meeting sky. Her panoramic vistas emulate the reduction of detail that a landscape takes in one's memory, blurring the minute, and emphasizing the color of sunsets and skylines. Metz revisits pieces like an old story being retold again and again, further abstracting and retelling a landscape until it is reduced to its most fundamental form.
Metz was born in Dayton, Ohio on September 3rd, 1932. She began her formal artistic studies with her BFA from Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 1955, and her MA from UCLA in 1960. Metz would become a passionate arts educator. Her work as a teacher began in 1964 at Phoenix College in Arizona. She took a break from her education career in 1966 to go to Paris and study at Atelier 17, the celebrated print studio established by Stanley William Hayter.
After her time with Hayter, she returned to New York City to work with Philip Guston and Robert Blackburn. During her time there, she studied abstract expressionism, which subsequently informed all of her work - from light-filled plein air paintings, to vivid watercolors and arresting woodcuts. Kay then returned to teaching in 1967, becoming a part-time faculty member at the NYU School of Education. Thanks to her work in New York, she was hired to establish the printmaking department at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 1971, where she taught until her retirement in 1992.
For several decades after retiring from UCSC, she delighted in painting the wetlands of southern Santa Cruz County. Metz was particularly fond of the Elkhorn Slough in Monterey Bay, California, and the Orkney Islands, Scotland, both as subjects for painting and conservation. She was an active member of the Watsonville Wetlands Watch for many years, and a Board Member from the 1990s into the early 2000s. She Passed away on September 27th, 2018 in Santa Cruz, California, leaving an undeniable mark on many young artists, the wetlands of her home, and many prestigious collections. Her works are held in numerous fine art collections, including: the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, The Phoenix Art Museum, the Fresno Art Museum, and the Monterey Museum of Art, among others.
Selected Awards, Exhibitions and Collections
Fellowships and Awards:
Award of excellence, juried exhibition, Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, 1996.
Purchase prizes: 19th Harper College National Print & Drawing Competition, Palatine Illinois, 1995.
Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, University of Wise nsin-Parkside, Kenosha, Wisconsin, 1989.
Pacific States National Biennial Print Exhibition, University of Hawaii at Hilo, 1988.
Residence fellowships: Huntington Hartford Foundation, 1964; MacDowell Colony, 1966.
Solo Exhibitions Include:
Adobe Krow Archives, Bakersfield, California (two-person exhibit), 1997.
Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve Visitors Center, Watsonville, CA, 1996.
Research Libraries Group, Mountain View, California, 1993.
Printworks, Fulbright College, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1988.
Sesnon Gallery, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, 1984.
Smith Gallery, Cowell College, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1980.
California State University, Hayward, 1977.
Re: Vision Gallery, Santa Monica, California, 1975.
George Wittenborn, New York City, 1967.
Jenet Gallery, Los Angeles, 1965.
Group Exhibitions Include:
Delta National Small Prints Exhibition, Fine Arts Center, Arkansas State Univ., Jonesboro, Ark., 1996.
Juried Exhibition, Monterey Peninsula Museum of Art, Monterey, California, 1996.
Norwegian International Print Triennale, Game Fredrikstad, Norway, 1995.
19th Harper College National Print and Drawing Competition, Palatine, Illinois, 1995.
"Impressions of China," Northern Arizona University Art Museum, Flagstaff, Arizona, 1995.
"Black and White," Pope Gallery, Santa Cruz, California, 1995.
"Taking Flight, A Portfolio of Broadsides," Califa Books, San Francisco, and Holmes Fine Art, San Jose, 1993.
36th Annual Print Exhibition, Hunterdon Art Center, Clinton, New Jersey, 1992.
2nd Bharat Bhavan International Print Biennial, Museum of Fine Arts, Bhopal, India, 1991.
National Competition Exhibition of 2-Dimentional Work, Bowery Gallery, New York City, 1991.
National Works on Paper Competition, University Museums, University of Mississippi, 1990.
"Influence and Manifestations," Harlem School of the Arts, New York City, 1990.
US-UK Print Connection, Barbicon Center, London and other venues in England, 1989.
Pacific States National Invitational Print Exhibition, University of Hawaii at Hilo, 1989.
"Diversity and Presence," Women Faculty Artists of the University of California, UC galleries, 1987-88.
Premiere Triennale Mondale d'Estampes Petit Format, Chamaliers, France and other venues, 1988.
Orlando Gallery, Van Nuys, California, 1987.
"Connections Project/Conexus," Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Arts, New York City, Artists Book and Traveling Exhibition, 1987.
Introductions '85, William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco, 1985.
Collections Include:
New York Public Library, New York City, New York.
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.
Grunwald Graphic Arts Foundation, University of California, Los Angeles, California.
Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York.
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.
California State University, Long Beach, California.
Sudbury Board of Education, Ontario, Canada.
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Special Collections, McHenry Library, University of California, Santa Cruz, California.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chamaliers, France.
University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Harper College, Palatine, Illinois.
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