Impreza Earth - Ryan McLaughlin

In his first exhibition at David Petersen Gallery, Ryan McLaughlin presents a body of new paintings. Small to modestly-sized, these new works continue his use of oil on linen-covered panels, as well as introduce low relief wood panels with pigmented wax and glue. McLaughlin’s paintings exist in the traditions of both still life and poster, displaying arrangements of common signs and symbols within an intimate rectilinear space. A pictorially flat hybrid of abstraction and representation, McLaughlin’s painterly usage of text, logo and mascot seemingly creates an incongruity between the artist’s technique and the graphic elements of the designer. However, it is McLaughlin’s expressive technique – a brushy quality that resists the free or fussy – that personalizes the poster-like compositions, as the work subverts advertising’s intention of ubiquitous understanding, preferring subjective translation.

Ryan McLaughlin was born in 1980 in Worcester, MA. He recently relocated to Atlanta after having lived and worked for 12 years in Berlin. In 2003 he received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Recent solo exhibitions include TraffiQ, Laura Bartlett Gallery, London; Lacus PM, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne; Raisins, Laurel Gitlen, New York City; and Barbara II at Lüttgenmeijer, Berlin. Ryan has also recently exhibited in several group exhibitions in Athens, Düsseldorf, Budapest, Copenhagen, Berlin and New York City. This is Ryan’s first exhibition in Minneapolis and with David Petersen Gallery.