'Coagulation' by Jack Ryan at Baader-Meinhof, Omaha

Baader-Meinhof is pleased to present Coagulation, a solo exhibition by New York City-based artist Jack Ryan (b. 1990). Ryan has long been invested in the relationship between the human- istic project and the intimacy of the everyday. Coagulation continues Ryan’s ongoing efforts to synthesize architecture, historical record and the ineffable feeling of wandering our world insen- sate. Drawing has been central to Ryan’s practice from the start, a “short-hand”, impressionistic method to convey more direct understandings. The images presented here are rendered equal- ly from personal experience as through mediated experiences of collective memory, inscrip- tions of a cultural consciousness. The works meditate on the natural world and the way we cope, adapt and endeavor to transform private phenomenal experience into collective meaning. 

A series of four graphite and pen drawings float on the gallery wall. Mounted low, as if burdened by gravity, these drawings operate as objects not only of representation but also of measure- ment, realigning the viewer’s sense of scale to the artwork and the architecture that holds them both aloft. Smudged symbols and deracinated signifiers float upon these ethereal planes, con- juring a vision that lies somewhere between a dream and a memory. 

The indeterminate, muted qualities of Ryan’s drawings—a transient detachment, an unmoored malaise —carry into his landscapes. Ryan coyly casts his disenchantment with anthropocentric innovation in a tabletop architectural miniature, directing attention to the subjective scale of the viewer themself. Vacillating between formalist sculpture and speculative landscape, this work’s indeterminacy grants the viewer a disquieting sense of agency in determining it’s true nature and prospective use. Floating just above the surface, the abstract landscape hovers weightless, as if in defiance of the wall works wilting slant. 

At last, a burst of color, a queer collage. It appears at first naive, a child dreams of the Big City without sorrow, and then quietly perverse, “PEACE LOVE LAW ENFORCEMENT.” Scale askewed and pin-prick pointilist rendered reads like a laundry list: , bruised arms, cop cars, Tide detergent, 1 egg and a figerprint, P.S. someone jumped in front of the 5 train so take the N. Its impression- istic charm calls to mind the personal nature of our day to day, the privacy of our bedroom and window we gaze out, wondering our humble thoughts, watching it all happen, waiting for our world to change.