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Charles Campbell Gallery presents new paintings by Frank
Ryan. This is his second 2007 solo show since receiving his
MFA in
painting and drawing from the University of California, Los
Angeles (UCLA) in 2006. Earlier this year he exhibited with
the Walter
Maciel Gallery in Los Angeles.
The works in this exhibition are based on a combination of source
material, i.e. photographs, digital video and photography as
well as observational drawings. Many of the newest pieces are
based on security camera footage recorded by computers - and
made available by computers. The images are of hotel lobbies,
restaurants, bars, and storefronts as well as ports, cathedrals,
urban streets and even living rooms.
Ryan’s only access to these places is through the Internet.
He comments that people frequenting them most likely have no
idea that their image is online for others to see. These works,
as an extension of the artist, question the ownership of experience
and the rights to one’s own image.
In 2003 Ryan was one of four artists selected by the executive
director of the Sonoma Museum of Visual Arts for their exhibition “Innovations
in printmaking from Sonoma County.” Reviewer Gretchen Giles
wrote “Ryan, who is 24, (is) immensely gifted….” This
same writer said in a 2002 story: “Relying almost solely
on the reliable glory of light and a viewer's brain synapses
to put images together, his quick, deft strokes paint an everything
from a nothing.” She also noted: “Profoundly influenced
by English painters Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, Ryan's work
also centers on human narrative… But the representational
figures almost cease to matter, as Ryan's surfaces are infinitely
fascinating from any vantage.”
Fast forward to his 2006 UCLA thesis show: the LA Weekly quoted
Ryan as having an interest in capturing in paintings, a sense
of living in the city. The author commented in response: “The
work reminds one, however, of how rich a thing that is. They’re
large, unabashedly muscular works, but suffused with sensitivity:
to light, space, the figure, mood. They’re bodily works.” The
University (UCLA) 2007 Department of Art “Graduate Studies
Brochure” features two images of Ryan’s paintings,
including an installation view of his 2006 thesis show.
Frank Ryan completed his BFA at Sonoma State in 2002, following
a year of studies in Italy at the Academia di Belle Arti
di Firenze, Florence, Italy. He is reported to be collected
by most of the
Sonoma State University art faculty.
Frank Ryan's Artist's Page
Biography
Statement
Artist's Web Site
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