States Ryan Travis Christian:
These pieces have also been done in the past 5 months or so. They are exercises in experimentation, style fusion and problem solving – some are failures, some are glorious. They have been sent to and fro repeatedly in most cases, with the exception of the Chicago based artists on the list as we’ve gotten together and worked on them in person. The process of working on them is really great because it forces us to consider different ways to approach creating/resolving an image. Some of the artist are close friends, some I simply admire, all are up-and-coming artists that have established a great work ethic, unique visual style and are people who I’m proud to consider my peers in the contemporary art world.
Inhabiting the high-desert of New Mexico, Scott Anderson (Albuquerque) makes oil paintings that deal with inventing emblems of new mythologies from old tropes and ways. He has solo shows with Kavi Gupta in Chicago, Stux Gallery in New York and Mark Moore in Los Angeles.
Chris Duncan (Oakland) creates paintings and large installation that deal with light and perception. He currently works with Eli Ridgway Gallery (SF) and HalseyMcKay (NY).
Ted Gahl (Connecticut/ NYC) is an East Coast painter, marking his compositions with imagery that morphs between abstraction and things recognizable, but displaced and pocketed within abstraction. Ted has shown with The Green Gallery West (Milwaukee), Dodge Gallery (NYC), and Halsey McKay (E. Hampton).
Cody Hudson (Chicago) is a fine artist, a graphic designer, a restaurateur and then some. Hudson’s aesthetic is part urban modernism, and part organic visual deconstruction. He shows with Andrew Rafacz (CHI) and Guerrero Gallery (SF).
Eddie Martinez (New York) builds an constantly expanding visual language of character and object through juicy clots of pigment and expressive mark making. Martinez has had solo shows in New York, Berlin, Copenhagen, Seoul, Geneva, San Juan and Stockholm. He is represented by ZeiherSmith (NY).
Dana Dart-McLean (Portland/NYC) is an artist, illustrator and writer. She recently learned that the Lewis and Clark expedition allocated 7 lbs. of meat per man daily. She plays in two bands, Conditioner and FAKE I.D. and makes a podcast. Some of this stuff is not true.
Rachel Niffenegger’s (Chicago) sculptures and paintings traffic in arresting and grotesque imagery, depicting the body in ridiculous levels of distress. She has shown at the MCA in Chicago, Ceri Hand Gallery in England and is represented by Western Exhibitions.
Matthew Palladino (Philadelphia) creates paintings that draw upon the visual language of illustration and graphic design, the pieces playfully reference pop culture, art history, the carnivalesque, and moralistic pitfalls. Palladino exhibits with Eli Ridgway Gallery (SF) and Fredericks & Freiser (NYC).
Geoffrey Todd Smith (Chicago) delineates a seemingly impenetrable field of optical buzz and hiss in his purely abstract, non-referential paintings. Smith shows with Western Exhibitions in Chicago and Luis de Jesus in Los Angeles.
Andrew Schoultz (San Francisco) makes large paintings and installations inspired by global turmoil and societal angst. He is represented by MorganLehman (NY), Marx & Zavaterro (SF), Marke Moore (LA), and Jerome Zodo (Milan)