Wainscott, NY – Tripoli Gallery is pleased to present this year’s Artist-In-Resident, Angelbert Metoyer and his solo Exhibition Magnificent Change. As he uses the Gallery as his temporary studio, the performance of Magnificent Change will be a living symbolic garden and installation from the 3rd to the 24th of April, leading to the Artists reception on April 24th from 6 – 9pm. The completed exhibition will remain on view until May 3rd, 2021. The residency and exhibition will lead up to the release of two new works for a Contemporary Auction in June at Sotheby’s.

With his main studio based in Houston, the American painter and Afrofuturist will draw on recent sojourns in light to inform this new body of work. Works as early as 2008, transformed during this residency, create a strong connection to the cosmos and nature. Using past works in his process, Metoyer constructs in concert with the elements to create artworks that exhibit life force and vitality, permeated texturally with historical references and thematic layers. Metoyer explores memory, mythology and metamorphosis through the channels of history, philosophy and theology. Boundless by materiality, these various medias combining conventional artistic mediums with nontraditional materials such as coal, oil, tar and gold dust (“excrements of industry” as he calls them) exhibit an otherworldly quality. His practice is reminiscent of horticultural pruning and through his ongoing collaboration in nature, Metoyer utilizes the light and the performative history of painting on the East End. An ongoing element of his work, his shadow drawing techniques have found a way to be uncovered here in Wainscott and connected to the history of action painting through this residency.

Metoyer’s paintings, rooted in abstraction, sometimes reference surrealism and figuration, often times taking more than a decade to complete. The resulting canvases essentially contain a multitude of paintings and layers of composited images and musings. Metoyer’s paintings and drawings evoke a conceptual duality, straddling a blurry line between literal representation of lived experiences and abstract expressions of memories and dreams. In breaking down and reconstructing new narratives, Metoyer explores the lifespan of chronicles that live within his work.

Angelbert Metoyer studied drawing and painting at the Atlanta College of Art. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the US Department of State, Houston Museum of Fine Art, The Charles, H. Wright Museum, African American Museum of Contemporary Art, the ACE Collection, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, Germany. He has shown at the Venice Biennale, Art Basel Miami, and Art Basel Switzerland. His work has been featured on many album and book covers, including Mike Ladd’s Negrophilia, Saul Williams’ Niggy Tardust, Bilal’s In Another Life (2015) and VOYAGE-19 (2020), and Marcus Guillery’s Red Now and Laters (2014). Angelbert Metoyer has exhibited with Tripoli Patterson since 2005; 1st Annual Thanksgiving Collective, 2005; Butter Lane Barn Show, 2006; and in group shows at Tripoli Gallery since the year of its inception; Before We Let Go, 2009; Modern Salon, 2012; What Have We Done?, 2019; and Are We There Yet?, 2021. Magnificent Change marks his second solo show at Tripoli Gallery following After Life in 2017.

For press inquiries or further information, please contact info@tripoligallery.com or call 631.377.3715

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Angelbert Metoyer Venus and the Squid, 2016-2021

acrylic, enamel, charcoal, gold dust, oil, spray paint, and pigment on canvas
92 x 86 inches
(233.7 x 218.4 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer The Baptist Imbued A Map, 2021

acrylic, oil, pigment and collage on canvas
109 x 49 inches
(276.8 x 124.5 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer As Light, 2017-2021

artist made materials, chalk and watercolor on paper
72 x 84 inches
(182.9 x 213.4 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer Hourglass, 2017-2021

artist made materials and watercolor on paper
72 x 84 inches
(182.9 x 213.4 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer Shapeshifters wish 11211, 2008-2021

coal dust, gold dust, paper, oil and acrylic on canvas
84 x 72 inches
(213.4 x 182.9 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer Afterlife, 2017-2021

acrylic, oil and pigment on canvas
72 x 84 inches
(182.9 x 213.4 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer UnRidden (God's Train), 2014-2021

acrylic, oil, gold leaf and pigment on canvas
60 x 48 inches
(152.4 x 121.9 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer Entity Pilgrim (attribute), 2017-2021

acrylic, oil, gold leaf and pigment on canvas
60 x 48 inches
(152.4 x 121.9 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer Guardian Queen, 2017-2021

acrylic, oil, gold leaf and pigment on canvas
48 x 60 inches
(121.9 x 152.4 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer Self Portrait (Sea), 2017-2021

gold leaf, coal dust, and oil on canvas
24 x 18 inches
(60.9 x 45.7 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer Portrait, 2017

coal and paint on canvas
24 x 11.5 x 18 inches
(60.9 x 29.21 x 75.7 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer Shapeshifter A, 2015

ink and acrylic on paper
15 x 11.25 inches
(38.1 x 28.6 cm)

Angelbert Metoyer Shapeshifter B, 2015

ink and acrylic on paper
15 x 11.25 inches
(38.1 x 28.6 cm)