In the heart of the West Village, the Maccarone contemporary art gallery held its opening reception yesterday, to announce the first solo exhibition by New York-based artist, Ryan Sullivan. Showcasing large and loud pieces of Sullivan’s paints, oils, and textures on contrasting bare white walls, the warehouse-like gallery space was filled with colleague artists, other gallery owners, and people who just love to appreciate art.
The contemporary gallery started off in an abandoned electronics store on Canal Street, Chinatown with a group of artists that Maccarone hand picked herself. According to Allison Rodman, Maccarone’s manager of publications, Maccarone’s artistic sensibility, content and style evolved throughout the move of the gallery into the West Village, from “her perspective of artists of the 2000’s in New York City to Europe and institutional critique.” “Now, she’s shifted back to focusing on U.S. artists and balancing young as well as established artists, like Ryan Sullivan,” being one of the many contributing group of artists, with a Bachelor of Fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design.
Michele Maccarone, founder of the gallery, began by opening the reception with an introduction to Sullivan’s focus of his work, materiality. “Sullivan’s thickly applied canvases express the materiality and the alchemy inherent to paint” explained Maccarone, “his works often invoke topographies, with a strikingly physical surface that undermines simple signification.” Displaying his main several large-scale paintings, Sullivan expressed his concept and process of his artwork as “adding layers of latex, oil, and enamel to create pooled pockets that emulate leathery skin.” He further added that his use of different layers and types of paints, as well as utilizing gravity as one of his tools to his work captured the “contours of morphing paint,” which seemed to captivate a significant amount of appreciators and viewers at the exhibition.
In terms of the ambiance and location of the exhibition, the gallery itself was understated and simple; with a mere ramp that lead to a warehouse entrance, the gallery seemed almost hidden, until the white walls peeked through from inside. However, the interior of the exhibition almost imitated a maze, with walls angled into different directions with Sullivan’s canvas artwork hanging on each wall. Spectators and fellow artists strolled down each wall, taking in Sullivan’s interpretation of materiality, as well as enjoying the walk through the maze. “I feel as if the presentation of the gallery is just as important as the artist’s work” added Ainee Dehradunwala, a spectator at the event, “even when I’m walking around and looking at his artwork, there’s no sense of boredom. I’m not in a hurry to get out of here. And, since his paintings are so intense, white walls are necessary.”
Sullivan’s work has appeared in group exhibitions including Greater New York at P.S. 1 MoMA, Queens; Luxembourg & Dayan, London; Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; VeneKlasen/Werner, Berlin; and Nicole Klagsbrun, New York. Maccarone will be holding the solo exhibition of Ryan Sullivan from February 10th through March 17th, 2012. -30-
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