American artist Lucienne Mettam (b. 2001) explores the unseen structures connecting individuals, species, and the environments they inhabit. Working primarily in graphite on paper, she creates layered drawings that investigate the vulnerability of translucency, using the experience of seeing through a form to evoke curiosity about the histories, memories, and invisible forces that exist beneath the visible world.
Central to Mettam’s practice is an intuitive process of building images through accumulation. Working almost exclusively with the broad edges of graphite sticks, industrial graphite blocks, graphite powder, and erasure techniques, she begins each drawing by trusting instinct, allowing her first gestures to record a present state before recognizable forms begin to surface. Layers of graphite are gradually built, softened, lifted, and reworked.
Underlying Mettam’s practice is a fascination with the ways experience accumulates within us. She considers us living archives, carrying memories, places, and encounters that remain stored within the body long after they have passed. These unseen histories continue to shape how we move through the world, influencing what we notice, what we remember, and how we relate to others. Translucency becomes both a material and conceptual language, revealing the bodies and environments that remain inseparable from the worlds they inhabit. Through this approach, Mettam invites viewers to rediscover the quiet patterns that connect seemingly separate forms of life.
Lucienne Mettam received her BFA in Fashion Design from Parsons School of Design, where her study of translucent fabrics, structure, and surface continues to inform her artistic practice. Her solo exhibitions include Transience (Rise Projects, New York, NY) and Phantasms (ArtHub609, Washington, DC). Her work has been featured in exhibitions throughout the United States and is held in private and corporate collections.