Ryan McLaughlin
25 May - 30 Jun 2007
RYAN MCLAUGHLIN
"The Old Curl"
25.05.07 – 30.06.07
LORAINI ALIMANTIRI · gazonrouge is pleased to present Ryan Mclaughlin’s first solo exhibition in Greece.
In his work McLaughlin establishes a scenario, not a narrative, even before the painting process begins, and then applies elements in his paintings in order to arrive at and enact this scenario. The scenario is usually alluded to in the construction of the painting and more often in its’ title. The making of the image is a more open process than the predetermined concept might assign, but the artist always ensures that the scenario pre-exists. These scenarios are clunky and dry amalgamations of a variety of topics including, but not limited to art history, modern medicine, quotidian routine, lazy botany, anachronism and aeronautics. The sports imagery in his latest work and its’ connotations are filtered through the aforementioned topics to inform the viewer of the original pictorial scenario.
The point of interest in the work of the exhibition is the décor and presentation of sports items and uniforms in particular, rather than the assumed triumph of top athletic performance. The almost total lack of ambiguity in sport serves as a starting point. Sport paraphernalia are designed for specific purposes and are used in an artificial environment that is marked by strictly established rules that enable and define each sport. A certain amount of maneuverability is allowed but only within limits. The narrow allowances of sport render it an apt topic to lampoon and refocus, if removed from its standard context. The element of surprise in athletics exists only in the context of the determination of the winner, but the uncertainty of chance lurks in any pre-fashioned non-malleable construct. As the artist says: “I am a painter. I work quickly on pictures and in that sense they are painted and not engineered”.
"The Old Curl"
25.05.07 – 30.06.07
LORAINI ALIMANTIRI · gazonrouge is pleased to present Ryan Mclaughlin’s first solo exhibition in Greece.
In his work McLaughlin establishes a scenario, not a narrative, even before the painting process begins, and then applies elements in his paintings in order to arrive at and enact this scenario. The scenario is usually alluded to in the construction of the painting and more often in its’ title. The making of the image is a more open process than the predetermined concept might assign, but the artist always ensures that the scenario pre-exists. These scenarios are clunky and dry amalgamations of a variety of topics including, but not limited to art history, modern medicine, quotidian routine, lazy botany, anachronism and aeronautics. The sports imagery in his latest work and its’ connotations are filtered through the aforementioned topics to inform the viewer of the original pictorial scenario.
The point of interest in the work of the exhibition is the décor and presentation of sports items and uniforms in particular, rather than the assumed triumph of top athletic performance. The almost total lack of ambiguity in sport serves as a starting point. Sport paraphernalia are designed for specific purposes and are used in an artificial environment that is marked by strictly established rules that enable and define each sport. A certain amount of maneuverability is allowed but only within limits. The narrow allowances of sport render it an apt topic to lampoon and refocus, if removed from its standard context. The element of surprise in athletics exists only in the context of the determination of the winner, but the uncertainty of chance lurks in any pre-fashioned non-malleable construct. As the artist says: “I am a painter. I work quickly on pictures and in that sense they are painted and not engineered”.