Temporary Pleasures: Artist Linn Meyers

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (0)

LINN MEYERS' NEW wall drawings unwind in epic proportion in "Here Today," her latest exhibition on display at the Art Gallery at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Meyers has a meticulous way with lines that results in intricate but naturally flowing patterns. Like her small-scale works, Meyers' new oversized efforts — including one created with local sound artist Richard Chartier — reveal Meyers' purposeful process to flattering effect.

The first piece explodes from the center of the front gallery's concave wall like a Big Bang, with forms resembling wisps of hair unraveling toward its edges. But the real spectacle is the lines themselves. Upon closer inspection one can see the interplay of color and motion in Meyers' work that gives it its unique, resonant quality.

"We were going to put a disclaimer on the door that said if you suffer from a seizure disorder, do not enter," says Meyers jokingly.

"Every time I walk into the gallery, I see it differently," she adds, quizzically noting the drawing's "different proximities." That aspect of the final product she admits to marveling at but not to have necessarily intended in undertaking her largest drawing to date.

The second work consists of two smaller canvases that fold together toward a point of no return and take on a sculptural quality. Abuzz with Chartier's eight-channel digital audio composition, the piece allows for another experience altogether: its reverberations draw you into the ensuing vortex along with Meyers' spiraling, curvilinear inlay.

Chartier said he wanted the sound to "seep" into Meyers' work, which it does literally through transducers (instead of speakers), so the art becomes the amplifier.
The result is a sublime sense of balance in keeping with Meyers' organic executions.

» UMD Art Gallery, College Park, Md.; through March 13. Meyers and Chartier discuss the show Sat., 2 p.m.; 301-405-2763. (College Park)

Written by Express contributor Johnathan Rickman
Photo courtesy Linn Meyers