Landon Metz's Site-Responsive Paintings at Waddington Custot Explore Silence and Authorship

Landon Metz's second exhibition at Waddington Custot in London runs from 21 June to 9 August 2024. The New York-based painter presented abstract works using the soak-stain method on unprimed canvas, influenced by John Cage's ideas about silence and perception. In a conversation with ArtReview Editor Fi Churchman on 20 June, Metz discussed his physical studio process, describing it as akin to yoga. He emphasized his concept of 'site-responsive' art, which acknowledges environmental properties without altering them. Specific works like MMXXIV XL, 2024 and MMXXIV XXXIX, 2024 were installed to precisely fit the gallery's wall height, revealing that the 4:5 format of all paintings corresponds to the golden ratio inherent in the space's design. Metz cited influences including Helen Frankenthaler and John Cage's 1952 composition 4'33", exploring themes of authorship and viewer participation. He views blank canvas as holding 'perfect whole' potentiality, comparing his approach to Cage's reconstitution of artistic creation. The artist, who initially pursued music, applies musical principles to painting, considering compositions as scores where forms are reconstituted by the viewer's perception. Metz, age 39, engages with contemporary abstraction by critically examining what it means to be a painter in 2024, seeing painting as an expandable, unkillable medium that handles new possibilities.