Ryan Syrell: Addenda: Rosy-Fingered Dawn at Louse Point

January 10, 2014 – February 19, 2014 

The works in Addenda: Rosy-Fingered Dawn at Louse Point address issues of the gestalt formal construction of visual objects, as well as the malleable nature of content.  Syrell combines his recent exploration of miniature “behind-the-scenes” art world imagery with an intensive study of the formal and conceptual properties of de Kooning’s 1963 Rosy-Fingered Dawn at Louse Point.  Placing these elements in proximity to one another, the work explores the forced incongruity between intent, execution, and content.

A fifty-year-old abstract painting composed with direct reference to a specific landscape is used as a diagram or blueprint in the construction and layout of these sculptures.  What happens to content when these two distinct visual languages are forced to co-exist and act upon one another; when an abstract painting with imagery rooted in real-world observation is, in turn, used as reference for a further iteration of physical actualities?

The sculptures in Addenda: Rosy-Fingered Dawn at Louse Point encourage a multiplicity of readings and modes of looking.  They seek to operate in the tremulous and shifting zone of content comprised of abstract painting, landscape reference, recognizable objects, and miniature interiors.

Ryan Syrell (b. 1984, Oswego, NY) is a visual artist interested in investigating the interplay between painting and sculpture. He received his BFA from SUNY Purchase and has exhibited and performed internationally. He has recently shown at Furthermore (Washington, DC) and Camel Art Space (Brooklyn), and had a solo show, Painted Woods, at Current Space in Baltimore.  Catalogs featuring Syrell’s essays are in the collections of the LACMA library, the International Center for Photography library, and the Indie Photobook Library.  Syrell was chosen by guest curator Mera Rubell for inclusion in the WPA’s Select 2014 auction, held at Artisphere (VA).  A preview of work from this auction will be presented by the WPA and hosted by the Marianne Boesky gallery.