Bartow
+ Metzgar
+ Werberig
Artist Group
Bartow+Metzgar+Werberig is a three-person artist collaborative composed of Paul Bartow, Richard Metzgar, and David Werberig. B+M+W is an extension of B+M (Bartow+Metzgar), a two-person artist collaborative established in 2000. B+M creates multi-media installations focused on the history, biology, geology, geography, and evolution of place. Werberig was recently added to the collaborative for their current project titled Terrakwa: an investigation of the Erie Canal and connected waterways, an eight year investigation (2017-2025) of the canal with related exhibits scheduled for the project in 2025.
Bartow+Metzgar have exhibited large-scale installations at deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum, Lincoln, MA; Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Action Art Actuel, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada; Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI; Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY, among others. The Boston Globe, The Buffalo News, The Baltimore Sun, and Art Papers have reviewed Bartow+Metzgar’s collaborative exhibitions.
The collaborative team Bartow+Metzgar+Werberig conducted a multi-year experimental drawing project to investigate the expression of time through a human-nonhuman drawing collaboration with trees. Their investigative process began in 2016 with a simple question — what is a nonhuman expression of time as it relates to the Erie Canal? The outcome produced 40 tree drawings (drawings made by trees) created with a simple drawing apparatus used to record atmospheric forces affecting a tree across time for a specific place. The artist team selected trees along the banks of the Erie Canal and its connected waterways. No two drawings are alike but when viewed as a collective offer a legibility that is provocative and speculative, and best perceived as perturbations rather than abstractions.
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