“My photorealistic paintings attempt to mimic the digitalization of life/nature, and they point to our current (cooling, distant) relationship with life, a relationship increasingly fostered primarily through photos, images on our computer screens, etc. Often experiences are reduced to nothing more than a static, second-hand, filtered, visual experience."

Bio: Michelle de Metz (b. 1968 LA), working from her studios in Dallas and the Texas Hill Country, is a diverse contemporary painter who has earned awards for both her photorealism and abstraction work. Occasionally exhibiting her photorealistic paintings--oils and pastels that at first sight appear to be tight, detailed, moody photographs--alongside her source photographs--that can more closely resemble paintings than the actual paintings--she enjoys blurring the lines between the viewers’ perceptions of contemporary photography and photorealism painting.  Where her realism is a moment frozen, controlled, focused, mostly free of brushstrokes, and utilizes a muted or limited color story, her recent abstracts are the polar opposite.  The abstracts in oil are typically active, uninhibited, vibrantly hued, exploiting the paint’s movement over the surface, and are highly textural and/or sculptural or architectural.

Education:

LSU – Louisiana State University

20+ years independent study

Selected Recent Exhibits:

Body and Soul, The Chapel,

I Am Woman, Rising Gallery,

International Contemporary Masters, Southern Nevada Museum of Fine Art, Las Vegas,

The Florence Biennale of Contemporary Art, Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy,

Colorful Personalities - Abstraction Solo Exhibit, The Englishman’s Gallery,

Jesuit Museum Permanent Collection,

Wish! The Dallas Contemporary,

The McKinney Avenue Contemporary,

Hill Country Estate Charity Gala,

f.i.g. (Fashion Industry Gallery),

D Magazine Art-Slam,

Alley's House, American Fine Art Gallery (Dallas Arts District),

Plano, TX City Hall,

Art Conspiracy II, III, IV & V… (La Reunion),

Keeping it Real, Prive...

Publications:

International Contemporary Masters

A + C November, 2009 Colorful Personalities...

D Magazine

American Art Collector

Organizations/Affiliations:

OPA, Oil Painters of America,

WAOW, Women Artists of the West,

The Dallas Center for Contemporary Art,

Dallas Museum of Art – Associates Circle Member,

The McKinney Avenue Contemporary,

CADD Art Lab, Contemporary Art Dealers Dallas

ARC,

Order of the Eastern Star,

Daughters of the Nile…

Awards:

Provided upon request

Artist's Statement:

Provided upon request