ONLINE GALLERY
(Please note all images are shown in square format. Therefore some areas of the artwork have been cropped.)

Hi! My name is Irina Metz, I am a visual artist based in Yerevan, Armenia. I was blessed to study at the studios of the most distinguished contemporary impressionists in Russia and Italy. My art is dedicated to concept of Happiness as perceived by ordinary people representing various cultures around the world. I am studying visual content that bears universal code of inner peace and joy. The metamodernist image of Blue Bird helps me to convey this concept. It is either present on the canvas or lives outside of it as a sensation, as a harbinger of hope and happiness. I travel a lot around the world collecting my personal mosaics of cultural signs from various nations in search of parallels that unite seemingly distant people.

How would you describe your work to someone seeing it for the first time?

The main ingredient of my work is light. My main intention is to bring the sense of happiness and tranquility into modern dynamic world. Gentle strokes of oil paints are smoothly interacting with each other on the canvas telling the story of each piece and inviting the audience to contemplate and look inside themselves.

What and which artists have influenced your work?

My art was largely influenced by world-renowned impressionists including Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Monet, Edgar Degas, Konstantin Korovin, Zinaida Serebryakova and Igor Grabar’ along with contemporary artists Bato Dugarzhapov, Svetlana Perotti, Paul Paiement, Gala Museridze, Svetlana Rumak and esthetics of photographer Kisetsu Kajin. 

If you could collaborate with any artist past or present, who would you select and why?

Among all artists I would be very much interested to collaborate with Míla Fürstová. The mesmerizing stories unfolding in her art make me hold my breath and dive into the world of female dreams and realities. Numerous metaphorical layers are artfully conveyed by the artist through combination of natural and man-made elements of a woman’s daily life and soul. She is often turning to the image of birds complementing the sensation of Hope aroused by her art. I believe that working on a project together with Míla would allow both of us discover additional angles and approaches to study and depict female identity. 

I would also name Louise Erdrich one of the most distinguished contemporary writers of Native American origin. Her novels “Love Medicine”, “The Porcupine Year" and “The Blue Jay’s Dance” deeply impressed me by the ways the author is portraying complex characters in search of their happiness. Her works became central for my PhD thesis in linguistics dedicated to issues of identity in modern society. I am planning a series of paintings studying the role of Bluebird’s image in Native American monomyth as reflection of universal keys to human’s happiness. Ms Erdrich’s input and artistic vision would make a priceless part of this series’ concept.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

Right now I am working on a series “Under the Bluebird Skies” that includes paintings and panels of mixed media: oil, acrylic, paper, sand, wood, ash, resin, plastic, etc. United by one theme these works are my glimpse of what true and illusionary Happiness can mean nowadays. Hope, home, purity, love, prosperity, aspirations and achievements are portrayed as eternal values from various perspectives. Combination of traditional and modern techniques, natural and synthetic materials allows pursue of Happiness in my art guide the audience on a journey towards one’s true inner self.

MY TOP 5 ARTWORKS

1 - Garden of Light, 2017, oil on canvas

2 - Woke Up Too Early For Love, 2022, oil on canvas

3 - The Smell Of Cherry Jam, 2023, oil on canvas

4 - Reflections, 2017, oil on canvas

5 - Hortensia Morning Dreams, 2016, oil on canvas