Collage of diverse printed materials on paper, 12 x 12 in.
Ry McCullough's pieces, rooted in printmaking, collage, and sculpture, develop complex frameworks that investigate the realms in which art subtly shapes language and imparts significance. In the evolving landscape of collage, McCullough questions conventional perspectives. Moving past mere flat representation, he infuses his collages with a three-dimensional sensibility.
Collage of diverse printed materials on paper, 12 x 12 in.
Collage is an invitation into zones of absurdity and criticality. It is a bundle of behaviors that can be applied to anything; paper, wood, metal, sound, and even processes of thought can be chopped up, pushed around and retooled.
Plywood, latex paint, drywall screws, Installation view
16 x 20 x 10 ft.
I hold the outrageous belief that we live in the best time in all of human history to be an artist. Available technologies have only made the landscape of collage richer and more diverse. I also feel that the flattening of hierarchies of hand-made and digital is an important step in imagining any kind of future for fruitful creative production. Working fluidly between physical and digital forms is allowing artists working in collage to be more adventurous and responsive. In a larger cultural dialog, I think that it is becoming recognized that collage is a state of creative consciousness for many artists. Our collective thinking or hive mind is deconstructing and rebuilding our realities as we speak.
Collage of painted and printed papers, 7 x 5 in.
Collage of diverse printed materials on paper, 15 x 11 in.
I intentionally work in a project-based format. Each project is defined by a thematic architecture and requires different kinds of research, materials, and actions. That said, my formal fingerprint can be traced through all of the things I do. Color, shape, composition are fundamental to my creative practice as a whole and are in dialogue with whatever content I invite into the studio.
Collage of diverse printed materials, 8 x 6.25 in.
I am a lover of printed materials, both found and fabricated, and I put both to good use in my work. I like having a deep vocabulary in the work so I love working with antique hand-made papers and having that sitting next to a gnarly clipped piece of glossy junk mail. I am also a printmaker, so I have the means to print the raw material I prefer; the character of the paper and color is central to my work. These layers of nuance can make the experience of encountering the physical work that much more rich and rewarding for a viewer.
Book board, manipulated digital print, 2.5 x 3.75 in.
Ry McCullough was born in 1979.
For Your Viewing Pleasure
Polys Peslikas (b. 1973, CY) is a painter based in London. His practice also encompasses works on paper, performance, and the use of ephemera. He is interested in the constructed narratives of image and desire, and in notions of the physical in the history of western art. His methodology develops on the basis of an open, self-generating creative process and draws references from various sources, including classical mythology, folk and sacred iconography, culture elements drawn from memory and his own on-going image-library project, which began in 1990.
Trained as a lawyer in his native Athens, George Tourkovasilis was ultimately not one to be contained by the letters of law. A polymath who worked across photography, writing, publishing, and drawing, he left behind a significant archive of studies on the human form—in its aesthetic as well as interpersonal capacities—and situated them squarely within the social concerns of his surroundings.
Melike Kara’s (b.1985, Germany) practice explores a highly unique and personal approach to figuration that’s informed by diverse interests ranging from 20th century German figurative traditions, a deep interest in social hierarchies, as well as both her familial history of migration and the realities of straddling two cultures. Drawing from historically Ottoman mystical traditions, we often see her characters in dream like trances, in states of self-indulgent decadence, consumed by their own existence, their dreams and hopes.
In the “dialectic of order and chaos” that structures all poetic discourse, veteran Los Angeles artist Jesse
Benson (b. 1978, Orange, CA) places himself squarely in the camp of order. But this presentation of new and recent paintings, sculptures, and artifacts argues the position in favor of order so relentlessly that, as it approaches the point of absurdity, a viewer might suspect that the artist is, if secretly, on the side of a wild and liberating chaos, after all.
Wade Guyton (b. 1972) was born in Hammond, Indiana, and lives and works in New York. His work has been the subject of numerous one-person museum exhibitions including the Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2019), the Serpentine Gallery in London (2017), Le Consortium in Dijon (2016), Kunsthalle Zürich (2013), and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (2012).
Out and About
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
VISIT
Christian Marclay - Doors
White Cube Mason’s Yard is pleased to present Christian Marclay’s video montage Doors (2022). Following its debut in the artist’s survey at Centre Pompidou in Paris (2022), and more recently its inclusion at Art Basel (2023), this is the London premiere.
READ
SUPER DUPER by Ry McCullough
SUPER DUPER is a zine that is an extension and component of Ry McCullough's new project SUPERPOSITIONS, the exhibition currently on view at Art Center Sarasota. This publication offers up a visual feast of photos, illustrations, and gritty detail shots or McCullough's work. Available through the artist.
WATCH
Felipe Baeza for Cultured Magazine
Trained as a print maker, Mexico-born Felipe Baeza uses collage, carving, and other techniques to create works on paper and wood panels to highlight the ways power structures shape people.The materials are treated with a variety of materials to create densely textured and layered surfaces.
