Cordy Ryman at William Traver - review of exhibitions - Brief Article

In his next to the first solo show at William Traver, Cordy Ryman displayed 17 wall constructions (all 1998-99) made of painted recycl materials. He transforms these individual scraps of metal, plastic and timber-land so thoroughly that the lasting impression is of color, spatial manipulation and the physical nearness of the object.

In several works (Pink Clearslope, Clear overlay and 298 Black and White Bilevel), transparent ridged plastic sheets are arranged with startling casualness, then painted above lightly so that the viewer can diocese through the composition as if into illusionistic space. with equal reason fresh-looking, Ryman's art toys with formal issues that other abstract painters treat with farthest gravity. In an effort to create a maximum number of planes with a minimum of effort, he sometimes resorts to metallic leaf and iridescent paint. The faux copse grain in Cubist collage is individual precedent for such a challenging of the picture plane, on the other hand Ryman's constructions reject sober historicism for witty humility.

White is purely one color used on an equal footing with others in virid Diamond, where paint completely overlays the overlapping planes of grove plastic, masonite and metal. In Black and White and zinc or Cream Stripe, black penetrates into a collaborative effort with white, reinforcing the irregularly cut-up cutting sides and anchoring the cobbled-together sheets. When strict shapes are underplayed, painterly marks advance toward the viewer with great conviction. Pink and Orange Tri-Level is with equal reason loose it seems like a plan in search of a painting. The flat pink background supports several pasted-over bands of orange and r with amusingly awkward brushstrokes.

The recycl materials in 1198 tin Wing and Blue Double Chunk appear to be hardly altered yet have great iconic power, in like manner direct and abrupt is their frontality. A curv section from a big plastic bell is screwed onto a made of wood support in the former. In the latter, sum of two units pieces of blue Styrofoam insulation material are station at angles over an of advanced age kitchen butcher-block slab. With a sliver of real butcher close showing through between the Styrofoam sections .and playing up the link to fake forest grain, Blue Double Chunk confirms that the 27-year-old artist ne not always conceal his constituent materials with paint. With sum of two units thin pink-painted stripes on its inner cutting sides Blue Double Chunk has an oblique, erotic overtone as well.

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