Last Exhibit, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Contemporary American and European Art

There is no first experience of a painting from William Metcalf’s Infinity Series—or rather that first impression is so quickly contradicted, or amended, by a second view, then a third, that it is impossible to pin down.

A piece seems to be painting, then sculpture, then something that is both or neither. One looks beyond a piece’s surface composition of shapes and colors, falls through them, and then wonders exactly where the surface of the piece actually is.

Constructed painstakingly of carefully machined aluminum or wood in a picture-box format, these pieces create a relationship between front and back planes by the use of a translucent piece of polyester fabric stretched over the front plane. In earlier work from this series, Metcalf painted or pierced the front panel, allowing forms and
shadows to interact with the blank plane behind. In these new works the interaction is enriched by adding painted compositions to the back panel as well. Simple patterns and colors become complex, deep, variable, elusive as the front and back planes communicate with each other and the light. Colors and patterns shift surprisingly, irresolvable, as the viewer moves.

The Infinity Series is the culmination of a lifetime of artistic investigation for Metcalf; a journey which he says follows the history of art. Classically trained in drawing and painting, Metcalf worked through many modes of expression, bumping up against the question of two-dimensionality in painting. His passion for flying and for building his own airplanes made a preoccupation with the perception of three-dimensional space natural for him.

Having worked with translucent polyester fabric in making airplanes, he began to explore its possibilities for painting. Polyester is like no other material, says Metcalf. Unlike opaque canvas or hard Plexiglas, polyester’s weave of microscopic transparent fibers makes it particularly soft and unreadable. In the works of the Infinity Series it provides the perfect medium for Metcalf’s study of light, space, volume, pattern, and perception.

In fact, as one spends more time with these pieces, one realizes that every element of them is perfectly suited to the whole effect. The materials balance with the precision of fabrication, the architecture of the pieces with the composition of forms and colors. The questions these works provoke and even the skill and history of Metcalf himself are served impeccably by the materials used.

With this exhibition we find a coherent and thoughtful body of work about movement through space, perception through time by an artist in the fullness of his powers. Here a mastery and perfect exploitation of materials have led to work which challenges the viewer to be patient, to allow their experience to go beyond first thoughts, letting it
continue unfixed, mysterious, infinite.

	Infinity Series #37, 2008 28"x28"x2/38" Acrylic, Polyester fabric, wood, DiBond 150WM
	Infinity Series #36, 2008 28"x28"x2/38" Acrylic, Polyester fabric, wood, DiBond 149WM
	Infinity Series #38, 2008 36"x36"x2/38" Acrylic, Polyester fabric, wood, DiBond 153WM
	Infinity Series #39, 2008 36"x36"x2/36" Acrylic, Polyester fabric, wood, DiBond 154WM
	Infinity Series #44, 2008 28"x28"x2/38" Acrylic, Polyester fabric, wood, DiBond 162WM
	Infinity Series #47, 2008 24"x24"x2/38" Acrylic, Polyester fabric, wood, DiBond 165WM

Infinity Series #48, 2008
24"x24"x2/38"
Acrylic, Polyester fabric, wood, DiBond 151WM

	Infinity Series #42, 2008 36"x36"x2/38" Acrylic, Polyester fabric, wood, DiBond 160WM
	Infinity Series #43, 2008 36"x36"x2/38" Acrylic, Polyester fabric, wood, DiBond 161WM
	Infinity Series #46, 2008 28"x28"x2/38" Acrylic, Polyester fabric, wood, DiBond 164WM