Press Release - "The Sum Of My Surroundings" by Ryan Whelan
Ryan Whelan
”The sum of my surroundings #1”
Soft pastel and acrylic on canvas
30x40 inches
2020
pt. 2:
The Sum Of My Surroundings
Ryan Whelan
Opening - October 10, 2020
Showing Through - Friday, November 6, 2020
Schedule a private viewing
info@part2gallery.com
Sitting in my chair on the balcony,
I look at the wall of trees that line my apartment.
Stop.
Give yourself a break.
Feel the sun. Daydream.
Give yourself a chance to feel vulnerable.
Feel happy or feel sad. Life has changed.
Grieving our old world.
Where am I?
I see a leaf being pushed by the wind.
I see the wind being pushed back by the leaf.
They are in perfect balance.
I want to feel this kind of balance.
I see hope and resilience in my surroundings.
I wonder what they see.
What you encounter, also encounters you.
Stillness is permissible here.
Finding balance.
It feels like trying to find a rhythm again.
It sounds like jazz.
Structured and precise.
Messy and unexpected.
Holding two opposites at the same time.
I relinquish control and let myself find a groove.
Allow yourself to let go.
Our old world is gone.
Start working towards building equity for everyone.
I feel hope for something new on my balcony.
Surrounded by all the green.
This is where I am.
-Ryan Whelan, 2020
Ryan Whelan
”The glow”
Soft pastel and acrylic on canvas
39 x 31 inches
2020
pt. 2 Gallery is pleased to announce The Sum of my Surroundings, a solo exhibition of new mixed media paintings by Ryan Whelan. This will be the Oakland based artist’s 2nd solo exhibition with the gallery. In this new body of work, Whelan ponders on the question, “where am I?”. Rather than consider this identification through a specific location, he instead investigates the relationship with his immediate surroundings, memories, and the people in his life.
Elongated leaves in tones of green fill a canvas, ranging from chartreuse to fern, from tea-green to midnight green. Arranged in a pattern more rhythmic than methodical, these leaves seem to sway in the wind, leaning progressively more as the wind sweeps through the canvas. The leaves give way to trees, some rounded, some reminiscent of pines. In a forest, the leaf is but a fluttering moment on a tree, yet on Whelan’s canvas, they command the same space. Leaves and trees scale equally, on a flattened canvas void of depth or horizon.
Nature has consistently been a subject of interest for Whelan. He comes back to it because he feels Nature embodies the hopeful idea that there is always the opportunity for new growth even in the harshest surroundings. In this light, Whelan paints scenes from Nature that create emotional structures for the viewer to ask, “where am I?”
This body of work developed during a period of relative isolation for the artist, heightened by the global pandemic. Watching the trees through his studio or from his porch, Whelan felt the intimacy of Nature not through escapism and epic vistas, but ‘’. The humble meditation of observing trees outside his apartment gave him the freedom to explore himself, both on and off the canvas, and to recognize that “what you encounter, also encounters you.”
The painting [4 big leaves] reveals a secondary purpose in Whelan’s work. Four leaves tower like totems, each four feet tall. Thus, the micro becomes the macro, revealing to the attentive viewer the not so subtle differences between each leaf. The lesson within is that the small can be mighty - that Nature’s power resides equally in a single leaf just as it does in a vast landscape. Whelan mirrors this ideal with a technique that introduces the loose and unpredictable nature of soft pastel to a more rigid and structured painting style. The viewer who engages Whelan’s paintings closeup is privy to the subtleties of discrete pigments from the pastels sneaking throughout the painting, as well as marks and smudges left by the artist’s hand.
19th Century landscape painting concentrated on the dichotomy between sublime and pastoral Nature. In the pastoral, humanity’s dominion and control over Nature was celebrated, while the sublime represented forces out of our control. Whelan’s landscape is neither exclusively sublime nor pastoral; instead, it celebrates the essential connection between humanity and Nature in understanding both the collectivity of living things and the search for self. There is always something to learn from each other. Whelan believes right now, if you are learning, then you are truly living
Ryan Whelan
”Getting closer and further away but never moving”
Soft pastel and acrylic on canvas
48 x 40 inches
2020
Ryan Whelan (b. in 1991) is an Oakland based visual artist whose current practice investigates how connections can create a sense of place.
Originally from Torrance, California, Whelan moved to the Bay Area in 2009 to earn his BFA in Printmaking from San Francisco State. In addition to his art practice, he has been working at the Creative Growth Art Center since 2015.
In Whelan's paintings, the smallest details are mighty, and the power of his images often resides on what can only be seen from up close. His painting technique introduces soft pastel's unpredictable character to the more rigid and structured properties of acrylic paint.
Whelan has exhibited work in the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, and Los Angeles.