Bryan Metzdorf is an artist and commercial designer who participated in a visual arts residency program here at SCA in October 2020. As part of a collaboration with the Albright-Knox’s Public Art Initiative, during a three week program, Metzdorf created several studies and finished works that were on view at Art’s Cafe and created a public mural. Metzdorf designed the mural, titled Before and Not Yet, on-site, borrowing from the existing architectural language and colors of Main Street in Springville. He also engaged artistically with local students in grades K–12 through SCA and Springville High School. Read more about the mural here.
Albright Knox’s Public Art Initiative is an innovative partnership between the museum and the County of Erie established in 2013 to enhance our shared sense of place and cultural identity in the urban and suburban landscapes of Western New York. The City of Buffalo joined the partnership in 2014. The goal of the Initiative is to create spaces of dialogue where diverse communities have the ability to socially engage with, actively respond to, and cooperatively produce great public art that is capable of empowering individuals, creating stronger neighborhoods, and established Western New York as a critical cultural center. Our working area includes all of Erie County and in this project we look to produce at the southern edge of that space in Springville.
Bryan Metzdorf is an artist and commercial designer currently living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Professionally, Metzdorf has conceived and executed immersive, experimental retail and commercial spaces for well-known brands across the country, including a tenure as a Senior Display Artist for Urban Outfitters, where he was charged with designing and prototyping the aesthetic language of the retailer from floor to ceiling. As an artist Metzdorf’s practice shares roots in his professional work but results in dynamic geometric works. He is heavily inspired by built environments around him, often breaking large structures down into smaller forms, which Metzdorf then recontextualizes into new compositions resulting in his collages, illustrations, and paintings.
Watch a short video about Bryan’s residency from Albright-Knox:
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