Christopher Metzger M.F.A.
Education
- M.F.A., Photography and Digital Imaging, Maryland Institute College of Art
- B.A., Art, Lafayette College
Professional Experience
Christopher Metzger is a socially engaged artist/educator living and working in Baltimore, MD. As Professor and Department Chair of Art and Graphic Design at Stevenson University, his creative practice often engages communities in collaborative-based projects that encourage an exploration of self within larger social frameworks. Centered on fostering community and the investigation of representational justice through a historical and contemporary lens, his work often critiques and challenges the status quo while developing critical perspectives and an urgency to bring about social change through acts of creative resistance.
Working primarily within photographic media and design, Metzger’s personal work is deeply rooted in, and informed by, his relationship to his wife and kids, a Black woman and two biracial sons. Often dealing with themes related to race, class, and identity, they examine their lived experiences through their individual identities and memories, while navigating places and spaces collectively as a family in search of joy, love, and truth.
As an artist/educator, Metzger has come to embrace the symbiotic nature of his creative practice. His art is his teaching, and his teaching is his art. For Metzger, these identities are one in the same. Guided by community, agency, justice, and care and informed by his research into decolonizing art and design education, Metzger’s work is committed to the process of un/learning and interrogating the narratives, structures, and systems that have historically been put in place to divide and exclude.
Research
Metzger’s areas of research, scholarship, and creative activity include Community Engaged Art and Design, Decolonizing/Diversifying Art and Design Education, Photographic Storytelling, African American Art, Protest Art, and Hip-Hop Music and Culture. He regularly presents his work and research at professional art and design conferences around the country. Recent presentations include:
- We the People: Collaboration as a Pedagogical Priority (Collaboration: Students as Partners & Embracing the ‘We’ of Mentorship), 2023 Foundations in Art: Theory and Education Biennial Conference: Serious Play, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, Denver, CO (2023)
- Do the Work (What Must We Do Now? Foundations Educators Respond to a Call for Increased Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access), 2022 SECAC Conference, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (2022)
- It Was All A Dream, Foundations in Art: Theory and Education Biennial Conference: Infrastructure, The University of North Carolina Charlotte, Charlotte, NC (2021)
- Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner: Life, Love, and Racism in America, 2020 SECAC Conference, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA (2020)
Teaching
- Fundamentals of Digital Media
- Basic Digital Photography
- Intermediate Digital Photography
- Photographic Storytelling
- Senior Capstone Research Studio
- Senior Capstone
Highlights
- “Mural project aims to transform buildings, perception of East Baltimore,” The Baltimore Sun, January 13, 2017. http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/arts/bs-ae-oliver-murals-you-are-here-20170113-story.html
- “Remember Discover Celebrate: You Are Here,” Bmore Art, October 19, 2016. http://www.bmoreart.com/2016/10/remember-discover-celebrate-you-are-here.html
- “Collaboration: Inside and Outside the Classroom,” Bmore Art, July 15, 2015. http://bmoreart.com/2015/07/collaboration-inside-and-outside-the-classroom.html
- “A Public Art Reflection on #BlackLivesMatter in Baltimore,” Hyperallergic, June 25, 2015. http://hyperallergic.com/217374/a-public-art-reflection-on-blacklivesmatter-in-baltimore/
- “Baltimore Students Team Up For #BlackLivesMatter Street Art Takeover,” The Huffington Post, June 25, 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/24/baltimore-blacklivesmatter-art_n_7646006.html?utm_hp_ref=arts
- “Baltimore Joins JR’s Inside Out Project with #BlackLivesMatter Street Art,” artnet news, June 24, 2015. https://news.artnet.com/people/black-lives-matter-in-baltimore-311076
- “Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise,” Photography, PBS, 2016
- “Black Study, Black Struggle,” Photography, Boston Review, 2016
- “Arts Preview,” Photography, Baltimore Style, 2015
- “It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop,” Photography, M.K. Asante, Jr., St. Martin’s Press, 2008
- “The Black Candle,” Photography, Asante Filmworx, 2008
Learn More
www.christophermetzger.com
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