Born in Nuremberg to Polish-Jewish parents, Gustav Metzger (1926 – 2017) fled Nazi Germany to England via the ‘Kindertransport’ when he was 13. When he began his art studies in 1945, he entered a world inspired by scientific experimentation, just as the Atomic Age—in all its paradoxes—dawned.

Over seventy years, through his writing, calls to action and art, Metzger wrestled with the contradictions of his time by championing how both ‘auto-destruction’ and ‘auto-creation’ in science, ecology, politics and art were equally important tactics to address the state of humanity.

This is the artist’s first solo presentation in Los Angeles and his second major show in the US, featuring seminal early experiments developed with scientists in the 1960s, as well as a new commissioned animation responding to his landmark text ‘Damaged Nature,’ a manifesto on environmentalism. A new release by Hauser & Wirth Publishers, ‘Gustav Metzger. Interviews with Hans Ulrich Obrist,’ will accompany the exhibition.