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Artworks
Michi Meko USA, b. 1973
Low View: Environmental Adjustments, 2023Acrylic, aerosol, oil pastel, gouache, gold leaf, hologram glitter, white colored pencil on linen22 x 30 x 2 in.
55.9 x 76.2 x 5.1 cm8904Further images
Michi Meko created this painting while in residence at artpace, a nonprofit residency program in San Antonio, Texas. The title, Low: View: Environmental Adjustments, relates to Meko’s ideas about the...Michi Meko created this painting while in residence at artpace, a nonprofit residency program in San Antonio, Texas. The title, Low: View: Environmental Adjustments, relates to Meko’s ideas about the correlation between inner and outer wildernesses. The perspective is that of a person crouched within a thicket of agave plants. Lines and patterns intersecting within the layers of the composition suggest the visual language of mapping. Meko has spent thousands of hours hiking, camping, and fishing in the wilds of his home state of Georgia. Embarking on similar trips in Texas, he found himself completely unprepared for the audacious environmental differences. “Having to confront that difference is a physical thing,” Meko says, “ but then it’s also about what that means psychologically.” The danger and unforgiving harshness of the outside environment brought him closer into contact with his inner harshness. "I began thinking about those agave plants and cacti as just different versions of abstractions that I could arrive at from looking at what’s in front of me,” Meko says. “I started thinking about how we, or I, most of us, have these aggressive sides and abstractions within us as well.”