Marimekko has a long tradition of inviting artists and creatives from all walks of life to create bold and colorful prints to be adapted into products from dresses to home décor. The Marimekko Artist Series invites emerging and celebrated artists to collaborate on exclusive Marimekko capsule collections. The series was introduced to push the art of printmaking into uncharted waters and give creatives a new canvas on which to present their work. Featured artists echo Marimekko’s design philosophy, bold aesthetic, and optimism while offering a fresh lens for viewing art.
Earlier, Marimekko dresses have been seen, for example, as a canvas for Virginie Hucher’s artwork. Marimekko’s latest Artist Series collection has been created in a collaboration with one of the most interesting names in the modern art world, Landon Metz.
Art acquisitions in the wardrobe
The Marimekko x Landon Metz capsule collection translates Metz’s visual vernacular to dresses, shirts, skirts, bags, and accessories in striking shades of deep blue and coral red. His organic forms, born from swirling pools of dye, are scaled up, creating fragmented bodies with a hypnotic quality into which you can’t help but be pulled. He likens the process of painting the gestures onto the material to a harmonious dance.
“Marimekko went out of their way to embody the spirit of my practice and find printing techniques that don’t just replicate one-to-one, but reveal something about the process and the way materials function together,” says Metz.
As a result of the collaboration, we see a capsule collection of garments, accessories, and bags. Metz’s hand-painting technique was combined with advanced printing technology at Marimekko’s Helsinki print mill to add another layer of nuance to his language – an exciting evolution in the art of printmaking at Marimekko.
