The artist struggled after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina. But he's found a healing power in creating his 3-D compositions. There were 122 pieces in Matjames Metson's weeklong exhibition at Coagula Curatorial this month: assemblage works of every size and shape, hung nearly edge to edge across the gallery's three adjacent walls, with a handful of free-standing sculptures placed around the floor. Each piece consisted of countless smaller elements, all common objects marked by the traces of some previous life. Pencils, matches, rulers, typewriter keys, jewelry, watch parts, bones, stamps, nails, hardware, scraps of handwritten letters, pages of books and scores of vintage photographs — Metson's materials come with stories of their own, which he weaves into eloquent, finely wrought, 3-D compositions, no inch of which goes bare or unconsidered. - Sonic Artifact