Galleria Paolo Curti / Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co.
20121 Milan – Italy – Via Pontaccio 19
19 September – 18 October 2008
Mon-Fri, 11.00–19.00, closed on Sundays and holidays, open Saturdays by appointment only
Opening during the art weekend of Start-Milano
19-20-21 September 2008
Galleria Paolo Curti / Annamaria Gambuzzi & Co. is pleased to announce the exhibition by the American artist Ryan McGinness, which will open on 19 September at Via Pontaccio 19 in Milan.
A leading figure on the emerging American and international art scene of the last decade, Ryan McGinness (1972, Virginia Beach, VA, lives and works in New York) presents his latest series of paintings, in a solo show entitled A Shadow Feeling of Loss.
We are faced with a vast, uncontaminated range of symbols, like the everyday metropolitan environment of the artist himself: icons, images that remind us of the forms of commercial logos, flat colors, stylized, abstract designs. A mixture that is made legible by a dizzying collage of signs, the metaphor of frenetic modern life. The artist is like a sponge, absorbing stimuli from everything around him: pop illustrations, signage, plants, and especially graffiti, the world of hip-hop and street culture.
McGinness’s aim is to communicate complex poetic concepts through a cold, authoritarian personal language, and the unusual combination of abstraction and representation. His work has always been influenced by his part experience as a graphic designer, his remarkable ability to condense the iconography of modern society and the great importance assumed by logos and computerized images. Once we are captured by his depictions, we are drawn into a fantastic world where we immediately feel at ease, because more or less consciously we sense the presence of icons connected with simple, familiar everyday reality.
For this exhibition the artist presents a series of 13 new paintings of various sizes, and 3 large works on paper, where the break with the past is a radical change of colors: in this show he uses complex, rich variations of black and gray tones, while the symbols on the surfaces are highlighted by sophisticated color shadings and timbres.
Ryan McGinness has shown in many prestigious contexts, including PS1/MoMA New York and the Royal Academy of London; he has also participated in the traveling group show Beautiful Losers, held at the Palazzo dell’Arte (Triennale) of Milan.
His works are included in many important collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Norton Family Foundation, and the Saatchi Collection.
The artist will attend the opening.
