Mark Ryan Chariker “All the Time in the World”

1969 Gallery (39 White St.)

This event has ended.

1969 Gallery presents All the Time in the World, Mark Ryan Chariker’s second presentation with the gallery. This exhibition, which consists of eleven new paintings, serves as a bookend to Chariker’s previous exhibition, Limbo—a title which becomes ironic in its alignment with the beginning of the March 2020 pandemic. Displaced for a year by the lockdown, Mark Ryan returned to New York City in 2021, where he began the paintings for this exhibition.

Chariker’s work is characterized by vast psychological spaces, with figures confronting emotional discontent. In his Limbo paintings, these spaces presented themselves as voids in the sky, with figures waiting for something or someone to rescue them. These voids were sometimes black spaces or a bright light, leading to an unattainable celestial otherworld, where things might be better, or at least different. All the Time in the World presents a new perspective, where these spaces can be seen more clearly. Instead of unearthly voids, we are presented with magnificent landscapes. These lush spaces with flourishing plants are intricately painted, often leading to deep valleys—but still impenetrable and just out of reach.

A Certain Silence, 2022, oil on canvas, 40h x 36w inches

Chariker’s paintings work as a narrative, beginning with figures in groups, still waiting for something, and culminating in paintings of individual figures confronting the sublimity of nature. Each figure seems to have an agenda of their own. Some look directly at the viewer in a confrontational manner, while others lean on another figure who does not seem to share in the camaraderie. These figures are having an awakening, but not all at the same time.

In Intermission, eight figures interact in an outdoor bar. The painting’s central figure has their back turned to us, gaze transfixed upon a man in the background. The man is solitary and despondent, looking out upon the misty landscape beyond. This central figure longs for a connection to the man, ignoring the group to experience what he is feeling. The man does not seem to notice that he is being watched. To the left is a figure in red, who has also disconnected from the group. She stares at the viewer, as if to ask if we are also bearing witness to this moment between the two.

In A Certain Silence, a solitary figure stands with his feet in dark water in a cave-like structure. He pulls what appears to be an earbud out of his ear, pausing his music to experience the world around him. We are caught in a moment of decision—to his left is a door in a dark hallway; to his right is a trail leading to a sunny landscape. He must decide which path to take.

All the Time in the World can have different meanings. Living in periods of isolation and reentering the world post-quarantine has changed society’s perception of time, leaving some to feel anxious and directionless, while others have had an unstoppable urge to live fast, as if there is no time left. But the figures in these paintings are moving calmly with intent—they have all the time in the world to make a decision, and all the time in the world to heal.

Mark Ryan Chariker (b. 1984, Spartanburg, SC) currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA. He is represented by 1969 Gallery in New York, NY, where his second presentation All the Time in the World will take place in January 2022. Chariker’s work has been included in numerous exhibitions, including Exhibition 15, PM/AM, London, UK; I have an idea!, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY; Platform, presented by David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY; Red Root, Green Root, The Valley, Taos, NM; Exhibition 10, PM/AM, London, UK; and Home Alone, ATM Gallery, New York, NY. Chariker has completed residencies at PM/AM Gallery in London, RAiR Foundation in Roswell, New Mexico, SÍM in Reykjavik, Iceland, and NES in Skagaströnd, Iceland. His paintings have been featured in Artforum International, Artnet News, and Art of Choice.