Filed under: New York, Interview | Tags: Arthur Pena, Conversation, Cordy Ryman, Dodge Gallery
I recently saw my first Ryman pieces in person at the Dallas Art Fair. Dodge Gallery had a piece made of 2 x 4’s, painted and hanging on the wall. There was also a corner piece comprised of stacked 2×4’s painted with soft, shiny colors. Upon closer inspection of the corner piece I noticed hand writing that indicated some sort of possible measurement. I couldn’t tell because Ryman had cut the wood off before the information could be fully retained. But the markings were just enough to show his hand. I mean this in both that it injected the work with a very direct connection to the artist in what could otherwise be mistaken to be a minimalist corner sculpture and it also showed his hand in the sense of a “reveal”, exposing the transparency of the process of making that Ryman is so willing to offer. After mounting his first solo show with Dodge Gallery, Adaptive Radiation, and just finishing up a public commission at Michigan State University, Ryman and I had a conversation. - Arthur Peña, Dallas Contributor
Cordy Ryman | Adaptive Radiation, 2013, installation view
Filed under: On the Road, Art World, Kansas City | Tags: Allison Schulnik, Andrew Katz, Angel Otoro, Archie Scott Gobber, Bill Brady, Bruce Hartman, Carrie Scanga, Cordy Ryman, Corey Antis, Dana Schutz, David Ford, Dolphin Gallery, Huma Bhabha, Ian Davis, James Brinsfield, Jason Fox, Joe Bradley, Jules de Balincourt, Justin Gainan, Kansas City, KEHINDE WILEY, Kent Michael Smith, Kirk Hayes, Leidy Churchman, Lisa Sanditz, Miles Neidinger, Nate Fors, Nerman Museum, Oppenheimer, Plug Projects, Tomory Dodge
That’s right, there is great art in Kansas City. Let me start by saying that I am no stranger to the region. I grew up in Kansas (leaving off the “City” on purpose, for those sticklers for geography), and since leaving it behind for college 15 years ago, a lot has changed. For example, the suburbs have grown beyond belief, the downtown area is no longer a place you go to get shot, and you can eat excellent food that isn’t BBQ. Although I don’t know why you would do the latter. But more importantly to you, a reader of this blog and I assume an art lover, KC has a robust and continually growing art scene. I only got a taste during my recent visit, but figured there was more than enough to share. I was fortunate enough to stop by the Nerman Museum, Dolphin Gallery, Bill Brady Gallery, and Plug Projects, places I would consider “Must-Sees” while visiting the city. - Andrew Katz, Associate Publisher (And Kansas Native)
Nerman Museum Exterior, designed by Kyu Sung Woo Architects, Inc.
Filed under: Austin, Review | Tags: Cordy Ryman, Brian Fee, Lora Reynolds Gallery
Scraps and discarded wood become remarkable, contemplative creations in Cordy Ryman’s hands. His style bears some influence of dad Robert—connoisseur of white tones and alchemist with mounting implements—but Cordy is more likely to coat his second- or thirdhand lumber with dazzlingly colorful paint. Or he’ll leave the wood bare to highlight its recycled history. Viewing Ryman’s work, his relief-like paintings and painterly sculptures, in his second solo exhibition at Lora Reynolds Gallery is best done up close and personal. — Brian Fee, Austin contributor
Cordy Ryman | Green Book, 2012, Acrylic and enamel on wood, 24 x 20 x 6.5 inches. Courtesy the artist and Lora Reynolds Gallery.
Filed under: Features, Q&A, DC | Tags: Britton Toliver, Bronx River Arts Center, Cordy Ryman, Culture Hall, David Reed, Furthermore, Gary Petersen, Halsey Hathaway, HKJB, Inna Babaeva, Ivin Ballen, Jered Sprecher, Jose Ruiz, Joshua Abelow, Keltie Ferris, Kris Chatterson, Matthew Smith, Milton Resnick, Pamela Jorden, Progress Report, Stacy Fischer, Stacy Fisher, The Working Title, Tompkins Projects, Vince Contarino
Give it time and the Internet will mobilize for change in just about any arena. So it’s not surprising that artist-run exhibition spaces — always bastions of change — are increasingly striving for a stronger online presence, sometimes even eschewing fixed brick-and-mortar locales all together. And it’s not just exhibition spaces. Artist-run curatorial projects like HKJB, Culture hall, and Progress Report exist mainly on the web, producing information that’s decentralized and disseminated horizontally, peer-to-peer. All of which is relatively new.
One of these projects, Progress Report, is designed as an online curatorial resource centered on visual content and studio visits. Co-founded by Brooklyn-based painters Kris Chatterson and Vince Contarino, their project is particularly keen on abstraction and focuses on the creative process from the perspective of working artists. This is noteworthy not only because Chatterson and Contarino are a couple of accomplished abstract painters in their own right, but also because they prove to have an expansive grasp for what their contemporaries are up to. -
More about Progress Report and our conversation after the jump. -Matthew Smith, D.C. Contributor
Installation view of The Working Title, a group show on abstraction curated by Progress Report and exhibited at the Bronx River Arts Center, March 25 through April 29, 2011.
Filed under: Art World, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, Boston, Chicago, Must-Sees, Houston, Philly, Santa Fe, Kansas City | Tags: Laurel Sparks, Erik Parker, Jaqueline Cedar, Leidy Churchman, Lesley Vance, Matt Connors, Chris Johanson, Cordy Ryman, Must-Sees, Njideka Akunyili, Jered Sprecher, Andy Cross, Siobahn Liddell, Kiel Johnson, Travis Collinson, Amy Casey, Charles Ritchie
Chris Johanson, Hey There, That’s You, 2011 | Acrylic and latex and mirror on wood, 45 1/2 x 54 inches. Courtesy Altman Siegel, San Francisco.
It’s time to break out the sunscreen and the summer group shows (and there’s no shortage of each). Our editorial staff have put together our Summer Must-See list for July and August, our guide to more than 50 of the best contemporary painting exhibitions in the country, including dozens of notable and not-to-be-missed shows by masters like De Kooning and serious emerging talent like Matt Connors, Lesley Vance, Leidy Churchman, Chris Johanson, and more. Also included are our picks for summer shows by artists previously featured in New American Paintings.
From L.A. to Chicago, Houston to New York and back, our guide includes exhibitions in every corner of the country. Images and listings after the jump!
Filed under: Art World, New York | Tags: Cordy Ryman, Joe Bradley, Keltie Ferris, Two Coats of Paint, Sharon L. Butler, Martin Bromirski, Lauren Luloff, Amy Feldman, Jered Sprecher, Patricia Treib, Patrick Brennan, The Brooklyn Rail, Raphael Rubinstein
Rebecca Morris, Untitled (#06-10), 2010 | Oil on canvas, 59 × 59 inches.
The pioneers of abstraction—the Cubists, the Abstract Expressionists, the Minimalists—emerged from firm and identifiable aesthetic roots and developed their own philosophies. In the competitive maelstrom of 20th century art, those philosophies became dogmas, and the dogmas outright manifestos. In the new century, many abstract painters are saying goodbye to all that didactic thinking and exuding a kind of calculated tentativeness. Raphael Rubinstein, in a 2009 Art in America essay and for a 2011 painting exhibition he curated in London, dubbed this new type of abstraction “provisional painting.” Similarly, artist and critic Stephen Maine homed in on the “incipient image” in a March 2011 show he curated at Lesley Heller. And the Brooklyn curatorial team Progress Report (aka Kris Chatterson and Vince Contarino) styled its survey of contemporary abstraction at the Bronx River Art Center The Working Title. All three labels suggest the centrality of the open proposition in contemporary abstraction.
—Sharon L. Butler (via Two Coats of Paint, The Brooklyn Rail)
Filed under: Art World, New York | Tags: Evan J. Garza, Foster Prize, DODGEgallery, Sarah Cain, Franklin Evans, Matthew Rich, Cordy Ryman, California Biennial
From left to right: Cordy Ryman, Franklin Evans, and Matthew Rich. Installation view. The Thingness of Color, DODGE gallery, New York.
Literally in the shadow of the boxy New Museum building, in the burgeoning Lower East Side gallery district of Manhattan, a new group show at DODGE gallery is notable not only for its contribution to a growing attention to sculptural and installation forms of painting, but also because three of the four artists exhibited here were included in our 11 to Watch in 2011: Editor’s Picks earlier this year. The Thingness of Color, which includes work by Sarah Cain, Franklin Evans, Matthew Rich, and Cordy Ryman, explores exactly what the title suggests—the three-dimensional qualities of hue itself—with colorful object-hood firmly in tow. —Evan J. Garza, Editor-at-Large
Filed under: Art World, DC | Tags: Matthew Smith, DC, Cordy Ryman, Conner Contemporary Art
Cordy Ryman, Window Box, 2010 | Acrylic and enamel on wood, 54 x 52 x 5 inches. Copyright the artist, Courtesy Conner Contemporary Art, Washington, DC.
Windowboxing, New York-based artist Cordy Ryman’s first solo show in Washington, DC at Conner Contemporary Art, is deceptively rustic. Ryman’s modular work is composed of metal, Velcro, and scraps of wood recycled from the artist’s studio floor. The ragged domesticity of the reused materials is interrupted by the hard edges of the repurposed wood blocks and by the artist’s systematic use of neon hues. Responding to the geometric shapes of his media, Ryman alternates between meticulous order and seemingly random arrangements, often blurring the line between the two.
The perception of texture and changing relief is also important in many of Ryman’s pieces. The work in Windowboxing unpretentiously straddles the space between painting and sculpture. Like his father, acclaimed artist Robert Ryman (who had his first solo show in Washington, DC just last year at The Philips Collection), Cordy ruminates on the color white, not only as it pertains to the surfaces of his work but also as it interacts with the adjacent surfaces of the gallery walls. More pics after the jump. —Matthew Smith, DC contributor
