Ryan McGinness

Ryan McGinness: Art History Is Not Linear
Page Bond Gallery – April 1- May 7, 2011

Richmond, VA (February 17, 2011) – Page Bond Gallery is pleased to announce Ryan McGinness: Art History Is Not Linear, works based on the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). This exhibition is courtesy of Pace Prints Gallery, New York.

An opening reception for the exhibition will take place on Friday, April 1, 2011, 7 – 9 p.m. with an Artist Talk at 6:30 p.m. Two days before the opening, McGinness will give a public lecture at Virginia Commonwealth University. The lecture, hosted by VCU School of the Arts Department of Painting + Printmaking, will be held on Wednesday, March 30, 2011, at 2:30 p.m. in the Commons Theater, 907 Floyd Avenue.

Ryan McGinness: Art History Is Not Linear is McGinness’ first exhibition at Page Bond Gallery. This prolific exhibition includes an array of works based on 200 drawings McGinness made that were derived from the VMFA’s permanent collection. After three years developing his iconic drawings, McGinness built a series of paintings by meticulously layering the drawings in acrylic paint. These works are from the same body of work as the museum’s commission for the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing. The museum’s 16-panel painting was acquired in 2009 with the National Endowment for the Arts Fund for American Art.

Page Bond Gallery will exhibit works on canvas, oversized paper, a series of cyanotypes, and two limited edition prints. Upon close examination, the works reveal references to artists from the 20th century, such as Jim Dine and Claes Oldenburg. McGinness also includes his icons of works that reside in other departments of the VMFA’s collection, such as African primitive masks, Indian miniatures of Ganesha, as well as Degas’ ballerinas.

The concept underlying this project is that art history is not linear. According to McGinness, “Culture is a multi-dimensional network that feeds and builds upon itself in a mashup that transcends time. My idea for this body of work was to use the VMFA’s permanent collection as source material for new works that would then become part of that same permanent collection, thus forcing it to fold in on itself.”

Ryan McGinness (American b. 1972) grew up in Virginia Beach, Va., and currently lives and works in New York City. He completed his B.F.A. at Carnegie Mellon University, and worked as a curatorial assistant at the Andy Warhol Museum. In the past decade, he has achieved international success, having had numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. His work is included in many public and private collections, including Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), Virginia Museum of Fine Art (Richmond, Va.), The Charles Saatchi Collection, Norton Family Foundation, JP Morgan Chase Art Program, The Schwab Family Collection, The Malingue Collection, The Richard E. Jacobs Group, The Shockey Family Collection, Cora Diamond Corporation and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, among many others.

“In the past decade, McGinness has become an art star, thanks to his Warholian mix of pop iconography and silk-screening.”—New York Times

“McGinness has mastered and integrated a seemingly infinite variety of visual languages, producing works that inhabit the ever-blurred border between high art and popular illustration.”
—Art Forum