#metadata | Ryan McGinness

Los Angeles, California – Kohn Gallery is pleased to present its second solo show with New York-based artist, Ryan McGinness. The exhibition, titled #metadata, will feature an experiential installation and new paintings from two important bodies of work – Studio Views and Screen Combines, and will be on view from March 19 – April 22, 2016.

Ryan McGinness is known for densely layering his original iconic drawings to create complex and sophisticated paintings. His surreal symbols employ the visual language of the universal modernist signs found all around us. In #metadata, McGinness turns this practice in on itself with Studio Views that depict paintings situated in the artist’s studio. However, these paintings-of-paintings are not reproductions. Rather, they are primary productions located within reproductions of the studio, complete with the inclusion of the tools used to produce the works – sawhorses, silkscreens, and paint buckets. In the adjoining side gallery, the Screen Combines take the tools of productions out of the paintings and into the viewer’s personal space. Visitors must navigate through a headhigh maze of paintings made on the artist’s used silkscreens in order to locate his smaller painting studies. Not only do the Screen Combines reference painting productions and image reproduction, but the painting studies also incorporate crop marks, registration marks, and other self-referential compositional elements.

About Ryan McGinness

Ryan McGinness grew up in Virginia Beach and was greatly influenced by the signs and signifiers that defined skate and surf culture. His multi-faceted work, which includes painting, sculpture, drawing and screenprinting, fuses graphic elements from modern media and Pop Art with art historical motifs such as Rococo-style designs. He received his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and worked as a curatorial assistant at the Andy Warhol Museum. McGinness’s work has been shown internationally and has been included in many museum exhibitions at such prestigious institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Saatchi Gallery at the Academy of Arts in London, MoMA PS1 in New York, and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, among others. His work is included in many public and private collections, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and the Charles Saatchi Collection, to name a few. McGinness lives and works in New York.

About Kohn Gallery

Since its establishment in 1985 by former Flash Art editor, Michael Kohn, Kohn Gallery has presented art historically significant exhibitions in Los Angeles along with contemporary exhibitions that create meaningful contexts, establishing links to the greater art historical continuum. Significant exhibitions include: Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Boxes in December 1986, just weeks before the artist’s untimely death; She: Works by Richard Prince and Wallace Berman, brought together, for the first time, two generations of leading artists from different coasts; Bruce Conner: Work from the 1970s, which inspired the artist’s first solo retrospective in Europe at the Kunsthalle Wien and Kunsthalle Zurich (2010); other shows of important New Yorkbased artists have included new works by Christopher Wool, Richard Tuttle, Mark Tansey, Kenny Scharf, and Keith Haring. Kohn Gallery represents important West Coast artists with long careers and rich history, including Bruce Connor, the Estate of Wallace Berman, the Estate of John Altoon, Lita Albuquerque, Larry Bell, and Joe Goode; along with an exciting roster of emerging and mid-career artists including Simmons & Burke, Rosa Loy, Dennis Hollingsworth, Mark Ryden, Eddie Martinez, Tom LaDuke and Troika. In May 2014, Kohn Gallery opened a new 12,000 square foot gallery. Designed by Malibu-based architect Lester Tobias, the new gallery building features an immense space with 22-foot ceilings, allowing for stunning exhibitions on a monumental scale. This design also incorporates a massive glass window along Highland Avenue and extensive skylights to bathe the gallery with natural light. With an eye always towards the future, the Kohn Gallery will utilize this expansive new exhibition space to continue to mount bold exhibitions of established and emerging artists.

Visit kohngallery.com for the latest information on upcoming exhibitions.

Join the “Ryan McGinness: #metadata” conversation on social media by mentioning @KohnGallery and using the #McGinnessKohn and #metadata hashtag when posting.