StartUp LA

Pinkness Studies, wool felt, pigment, and wood, each 8 x 8 x 3 inches

Stephanie Metz creates alluring yet unsettling sculptures and installations using soft but firm wool felt as her medium. She manipulates fiber to create three-dimensional objects that explore how touch, color, the female body, and fiber art are gendered, policed, and positioned within contemporary culture. Hand stitching thick industrial felt and repetitively needle felting wool fibers into solid masses, she creates forms ranging from intimately sized to monumental, often with touchable and interactive elements. Her works embody nuanced, contradictory ideas in approachable yet mysterious materials.

Metz holds a BFA in Sculpture from the University of Oregon and she lives and works in San Jose, CA. Her work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and internationally. Museum shows include the Mesa Contemporary Art Center (AZ), the Triton Museum of Art (CA), the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Art (TX), the deSaisset Museum (CA), the Oceanside Museum of Art (CA), the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (VT), Museum Rijswijk (NL), Museum de Kantfabrick (NL), the National Centre for Craft and Design (UK)  and most recently a commissioned piece for the newly opened Cannonball Arts Center in Seattle, WA.