Quincy Kmetz is an emerging artist working out of Jersey City, New Jersey, whose paintings, drawings, printmaking, and ceramic sculpture dive into transhistorical issues involving information, technology, and power structure.

Through illustrative-like scenes, she investigates the relationship between individuals and technology. As the internet becomes the medium facilitating our meaning of connection and isolation, she contends to unveil the ill-fated reality that comes with utopia. 

Kmetz’s work belongs to private collections in New York City, Los Angeles, Moscow, and Rincon, Puerto Rico.

Project Overview: How to Break A Zebra

How to Break A Zebra is the title of a full body of work, including mixed media paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, and an accompanying book. All works despite differentiating media(s) and a spectrum of styles will use narrative and repeated imagery of the main character- “The Zebra” -to unify the body of work. How to Break A Zebra portrays anthropomorphic themes of individuality, spirit, and freedom.

The name "zebra" originates in the Latin equiferus, meaning "wild horse". Attempts to domesticate zebras have been historically unsuccessful. It’s thought that having evolved around large predators (including early humans) they became aggressive, thus making their domestication complicated.

How to Break a Zebra first establishes methods used to tame, restrain (colonize), and “break” people, both past and present. “The Zebra” character personifies what cannot, and should not be broken in a person. “The Zebra” is the hero of the narrative, followed through all works. “The Cowboy” is the villain, used as a portrayal of American domestication.

Ultimately, the tone of How To Break A Zebra is ruthless- yet humorous. The work is meant to reflect the audience’s fantasies of freedom and encourage the observation of one’s own clout, but to do it in an undeniably funny way. The best way to tell hard truths is in the form of a good joke.

Education

2019 Associates in Fine Arts, Drawing and Painting, Pratt Institute, Manhattan, NY

2021 BFA in Painting, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

Group Exhibitions

2019 A.A.S Senior Exhibition, Pratt Institute-Manhattan, NY, NY

2021 After the Internet, Pfizer, Brooklyn, NY

Hyperreality, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

2023 Long Branch, Art in the Park, Long Branch, NJ

The Big Small Show, Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ

2024 Precise Perplexity, Aedra Fine Arts, Online Exhibition

The Art of Memory, Connect Gallery, Chicago, IL

Infância, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ 

Cabinet of Curiosities, West End Gallery, Long Branch, NJ

Group Effort, See Saw Gallery, Manchester, NH

Dog and Pony Show, West End Gallery, Long Branch, NJ

The Dietl Open, Dietl International, New York, NY


Publications

2019 The Sandy River Review Annual 2019

2020 Interview with Pratt Latinx

2021 Ubiquitous

2024 Feature Creep: The Archives

Digital America Issue 23

New Jersey Bards Poetry Review 2024

Orangepeel Literary Magazine: Issue 8, The Future

Superpresent Magazine: Summer 2024

Awards

2019 Thomas H. Loughman Memorial Scholarship Award, Pratt Institute, NY, NY

Pratt Circle Award, Presidential Honor, Pratt Institute, NY, NY

2020 Pratt Circle Award, Presidential Honor, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

2021 Pratt Circle Award, Presidential Honor, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

Residencies

2024 Aviario Studio Residency, Ferreira do Zêzere, Portugal