Michi Meko USA, b. 1973

This painting by Michi Meko is an expression of awe. The work offers a long view—an elongated perspective meant to question whether we have come from, or are moving towards, the light. From within the thicket we contemplate distance and the scale of ourselves within the vastness. The landscape is laid out literally while also representing an internal landscape. The light source might be said to represent soul or energy; the mountain ranges, lungs; a linear stellar network, like the neural net connecting our spinal cord and brain; the open space, our guts; the thicket, where our feet and mind are stuck. “The landscape exists as the visual metaphor to get the viewer into the work,” Meko says. “The work at its core never forgets its an abstraction.”