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WESTERN EXHIBITIONS: Ryan Travis Christian - The River Rats Ryan Travis Christian collaborates with .... - 21 Oct 2011 to 3 Dec 2011 Current Exhibition |
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Ryan Travis Christian - The River Rats
Exhibition view, WESTERN EXHIBITIONS, 2011 |
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In Gallery 1 Ryan Travis Christian The River Rats In Gallery 2 Ryan Travis Christian collaborates with .... Scott Anderson Chris Duncan Ted Gahl Cody Hudson Eddie Martinez Dana Dart-Mclean Rachel Niffenegger Mathew Palladino Geoffrey Todd Smith Andrew Schoultz In Gallery 1, Ryan Travis Christian presents a new series of works on paper collectively titled "The River Rats" and in Gallery 2, a selection of collaborative drawings by Christian and a group of artist friends from across the U.S. The show opens on Friday, October 21 with a free public reception from 5 to 8pm and will run through December 3, 2011. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm and by appointment. Conceived in the spirit of George Condo, Ub Iwerks, The Hairy Who, construction-site warning signage, and a vast assortment of other visual elements, Ryan Travis Christian's new series of graphic graphite drawings, "The River Rats", are inspired by outwardly surreal personal narratives. The drawings are fueled by the absurdity of life in his small hometown and take the "River Rats" as endlessly fascinating subjects for both studies and stories. Recently waxing nostalgic for these ridiculous characters and instances, the pieces have been created in the last 5 months with recurring themes of, but not limited to; fires, wheelchairs, heavy petting, fireworks, drug and alcohol usage, rivers, boats, beat up cars, death, homes, speed bumps, and cats. Over the past three years Christian has developed an idiosyncratic style of drawing: densely layered intensities of graphite pencil, graphic yet amorphous stylistic flourishes, in high contrast and slow motion, and executed in a cartoon y/ comic-esque style, but in an understated sort of way. Working in a stream- of-conscious fashion, Christian inserts his signature characters into hazy sfumato-esque landscapes and skewed spaces alike that repeatedly melt and coalesce. This is Ryan Travis Christian's first solo show at Western Exhibitions. Christian has had solo shows at Guerrero Gallery in San Francisco Ebersmoore in Chicago, and has been included in group show at Show and Tell in Toronto, Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton, MAMA in Rotterdam, Baer Ridgway in San Francisco, Space 1026 in Philadelphia and Synchronicty in Los Angeles and has curated exhibitions at many of these same venues. In 2010 Christian organized a three-part exhibition, "The Power of Selection, Parts 1, 2, and 3" at Western Exhibitions, the goal of which was to increase the circulation of contemporary artwork seen in Chicago by showing works by out of town and/or up-and-coming artists. New City named Christian as one of Chicago's "Breakout Artists" for 2010 and his work has been written about in Daily Serving, Beautiful/Decay and The Chicago Reader. He lives and works in the Chicagoland area. In Gallery 2 RTC Collaborates with Scott Anderson (Albuquerque) Chris Duncan (Oakland) Ted Gahl (New York) Cody Hudson (Chicago) Eddie Martinez (New York) Dana Dart-Mclean (Portland) Rachel Niffenegger (Chicago) Mathew Palladino (Philadelphia) Geoffrey Todd Smith (Chicago) Andrew Schoultz (San Francisco) Marissa Textor (Los Angeles) States Ryan Travis Christian: "These pieces have also been done in the past 5 months or so. They are exercises in experimentation, style fusion and problem solving - some are failures, some are glorious. They have been sent to and fro repeatedly in most cases, with the exception of the Chicago based artists on the list as we've gotten together and worked on them in person. The process of working on them is really great because it forces us to consider different ways to approach creating/resolving an image. Some of the artist are close friends, some I simply admire, all are up-and-coming artists that have established a great work ethic, unique visual style and are people who I'm proud to consider my peers in the contemporary art world." Inhabiting the high-desert of New Mexico, Scott Anderson (Albuquerque) makes oil paintings that deal with inventing emblems of new mythologies from old tropes and ways. He has solo shows with Kavi Gupta in Chicago, Stux Gallery in New York and Mark Moore in Los Angeles. Chris Duncan (Oakland) creates paintings and large installation that deal with light and perception. He currently works with Eli Ridgway Gallery (SF) and HalseyMcKay (NY). Ted Gahl (Connecticut/ NYC) is an East Coast painter, marking his compositions with imagery that morphs between abstraction and things recognizable, but displaced and pocketed within abstraction. Ted has shown with The Green Gallery West (Milwaukee), Dodge Gallery (NYC), and Halsey McKay (E. Hampton). Cody Hudson (Chicago) is a fine artist, a graphic designer, a restaurateur and then some. Hudson's aesthetic is part urban modernism, and part organic visual deconstruction. He shows with Andrew Rafacz (CHI) and Guerrero Gallery (SF). Dana Dart-McLean (Portland/NYC) is an artist, illustrator and writer. She recently learned that the Lewis and Clark expedition allocated 7 lbs. of meat per man daily. She plays in two bands, Conditioner and FAKE I.D. and makes a podcast. Some of this stuff is not true. Rachel Niffenegger's (Chicago) sculptures and paintings traffic in arresting and grotesque imagery, depicting the body in ridiculous levels of distress. She has shown at the MCA in Chicago, Ceri Hand Gallery in England and is represented by Western Exhibitions. Matthew Palladino (Philadelphia) creates paintings that draw upon the visual language of illustration and graphic design, the pieces playfully reference pop culture, art history, the carnivalesque, and moralistic pitfalls. Palladino exhibits with Eli Ridgway Gallery (SF) and Fredericks & Freiser (NYC). Geoffrey Todd Smith (Chicago) delineates a seemingly impenetrable field of optical buzz and hiss in his purely abstract, non-referential paintings. Smith shows with Western Exhibitions in Chicago and Luis de Jesus in Los Angeles. Andrew Schoultz (San Francisco) makes large paintings and installations inspired by global turmoil and societal angst. He is represented by MorganLehman (NY), Marx & Zavaterro (SF), Marke Moore (LA), and Jerome Zodo (Milan) |
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