AARON METZGER
Fueled by an affinity for the absurd, my work depicts a world of Metaverse Fruitcakes—crazy and eccentric quasi-human characters who flip our notions of normal upside down. Brutal imagery of chokeholds and gunfights depicted in a high-chroma, cartoonish style evoke a universe where the unusual and unorthodox are commonplace. Through the use of traditional and digital media, physical and virtual converge to make their world almost indistinguishable from our own. Influenced by professional wrestling, sensationalized violence in film, and 17th century Baroque paintings, my work turns real-world violence into parody where blood and guts become juice and pulp.