The sometimes disturbing, always intriguing, figurative oil paintings of Louie Metz juxtapose flawless technical detail with a raw, emotionally charged stimulus. An urbane and unique perspective tempers the work, fusing old world classicism onto an outsider art aesthetic. Sensual, confrontational nudes with emaciated souls recline and hesitate in the foreground of plush, photo-realistic landscapes or darkly psychological tableaus. Born in an army hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Metz’s father was a Marine and his mother a Holocaust refugee. At nine, his parents divorce and Metz moves with his mother to Los Angeles where he attends Hillel Hebrew Academy. In 1986, at the age of twenty, Metz enrolls at Otis Parsons to study Life Drawing, Art History, and Art Theory with well-known art critic Dave Hickey, and Painter Carol Caroompas. He graduates in 1990 with a B.F.A. Later that summer he enters the art world and has his first solo show. His early paintings are towering examples of craft eclipsing content, works five feet tall and eight feet wide, described as a cross between Anselm Kiefer, Dr. Seuss, Dali, and Zap Comix. A former heroin addiction, Metz admits that recovery had a profound influence on his technique. Recovery forced open his eyes and led his artwork into a new direction. “I wasn’t able to paint reality the way I wanted to until about July of ’97, when I did a nude portrait of my wife and it clicked – now I’m a figurative painter concerned with the way reality looks, whether I distort it or not.” A prolific artist, his subjects are usually offset by anthropomorphic landscapes: a suburban backyard, and apartment courtyard, a sweeping vista, all rendered in a way that reflects the subject’s inner psychological reality. “The models are usually going through some kind of psycho drama,” he says, “which makes it interesting.” There is also a traditional aspect to Louie's work that reflects a deep interest in the work of the old masters; however, Louie conveys a classicism without investing the work with a classical style. “I don't usually like contemporary art that looks pretentiously old. I find that its a prevailing tendency for figurative painters to stylize their paintings with too many pop-cultural references and self conscious chiaroscuro.” Complexity and straight forwardness, tradition and personal vision, beauty and brutality; are issues that conflict in life and art, yet because of their importance to the painter they must be dealt with and synthesized in his work. Louie Metz lives with his wife in Los Angeles, California. UNTITLED FEMALE NUDE FEMALE NUDE