Ryan Michael Ford and David Humphrey Exhibition

Storefront Ten Eyck

poster for Ryan Michael Ford and David Humphrey Exhibition

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David Humphrey and Ryan Michael Ford channel a contemporary zeitgeist of psycho-sexual angst, desire and fantasy. In the spirit of post-modern appropriation, both artists mine a treasure trove of material ranging from early Renaissance painting, Surrealism, cartoons and digital media to create a world of familiar archetypes in unfamiliar landscapes.

David Humphrey collages images and chunks of painted material to create visual hybrids that challenge our belief in our psychic integrity. His work is nothing less than a portrayal of contemporary consciousness, a road map for how we navigate the world and our inner life. Humphrey’s paintings are frequently depictions of depictions. The artist copies an amateur painting, for instance, the way a band might cover a song written by someone else or the way a singer renders an old chestnut. The goal is to get inside another person’s point of view. Sometimes the preexisting image will provide a location for one of the paintings. Sometimes a sad clown or beloved pet painting will provide the protagonist. Humphrey’s renditions take liberties with the originals, adding characters or exaggerating and mutating elements. The work evolves from contact with the original image and carries iconographic elements and feelings into the finished state.

Ryan Michael Ford alternates between painting and sculpture, manipulating pop culture images and the vocabulary of modernism with equal ease. The result is a highly personal world populated by Ford’s characters, acutely observed figures drawn from reality and choreographed on a stage of his own devising. Ryan Ford’s original inspirations derive from 12th-15th century Sienese paintings, Philip Guston, Francis Bacon, George Condo, pop culture and video games. Known for comic symbolic abstraction, Ford delves deeper into his psyche. His work titillates the mind with streaks of quiet violence and provocative tranquility. Although his work sometimes deals with serious topics and themes, they are never without a mix of humor, pure absurdity and ridiculousness.

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Schedule

from October 25, 2013 to November 24, 2013

Opening Reception on 2013-10-26 from 18:00 to 20:00

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