Organized by Ian Ruffino in conjunction with Cordy Ryman and Galerie Zürcher. Caught between sculpture and painting, Ryman’s artwork is characterized by recycled wood, metal, cardboard, acrylic and enamel paints as well as other found objects. When working with wood, he often keeps the rough jagged edges visible creating a very tactile surface, while revealing the tight connection to the human hand. As Stephen Westfall writes, “I see the artist sometimes struggling and arguing with his materials as often as he confidently unrolls or stacks them. The works retain their individual will, including the right to be rather ugly. But the homeliness of one piece is inevitably a response to the whole population of his work, an extension of form-giving into less predictable realms.”
Chimera 45 is a large, site-specific installation with a number of shaped wood battens placed parallel. They are painted white, pink and fluorescent red and closely associated with each other and anchored to the wall in roughly triangular and square formations. Some have a symmetrical disposition, others a reflected arrangement, so that by sliding from one side to the other, the eye follows the vibrant color waves breaking and reflecting endlessly in all directions. This effect goes beyond the visual and reaches a physical level, inciting the viewer to move -aptly noted by Mary Birmingham, “While sonic echoes diminish and gradually fade, the echoes in Ryman’s art seem to grow stronger as they reverberate.”
Cordy Ryman received his BFA from the School of Visual Fine Arts in 1997. His work has been exhibited at PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island, NY; Visual Arts Center, Summit, NJ; Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT; Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY; The Barbara Walters Gallery, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY and Esbjerg Museum of Modern Art, Esbjerg, Denmark.
