RYAN MCGINNESS: New Narratives

Miles McEnery Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings by RYAN MCGINNESS, titled NEW NARRATIVES. The artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery will open on 20 OCTOBER at 515 West 22nd Street and remain on view through 26 NOVEMBER 2022. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring an essay by Hilarie M. Sheets. 

"In what he refers to today as his 'act one,' McGinness began working with clip art found in the public domain, projecting and painting those simple, graphic forms onto materials like velvet and AstroTurf. 'I wanted to take these anonymously created images and put them in a fine art context,' said McGinness of the work he made through the 1990s. 'I’m still interested in using that seemingly anonymous form of communication. My drawings look like they should live on signs that aren’t authored.'"

"In his longtime 'Mindscapes' series, which he calls his 'act two,' McGinness accumulated his elements into great waves or wreaths or allover pattern and decoration on his vibrant canvases. The concrete outlines and specific meanings of each symbol melt into aesthetics—composition, form, and color. The puzzle pieces don’t form a coherent picture. Any implied narrative is nonlinear—for the viewer to project, like a Rorschach test. 'That’s how the mind works,' McGinness said. 'It’s random access memories.'"

-Hilarie M. Sheets in "Puzzling New Narratives"

"His younger daughter, Maxine, reappears in three other paintings including 'Girl with Guitar,' 'The Cat and the Devil,' and 'The Spaghetti Eater.' In the latter, an image of the rambunctious little girl is transformed through McGinness’s drawing process into a highly abstract and amusingly mechanical-looking creature, evocative of Picasso’s surrealist figures set on a beach. Her upside-down head, with pieces of hair falling downward, is reduced to an elongated neck and a wide-open mouth receiving spaghetti from a giant arcing arm grasping a fork that dangles the strands of gold-leafed pasta."

-Hilarie M. Sheets in "Puzzling New Narratives"