Ryan McGinness

San Diego

Throughout art history, artists have explored the idea of beauty through the use of the female nude. In contemporary art, the idea of this historically male gaze has been explored and questioned. McGinness addresses this idea of the male gaze by collecting visual data from his models and then rendering them oblique through a process of reduction and distillation to elemental forms. McGinness’ iconic drawings speak to the viewer more than to the raw nature of the female nude.

His current exhibition, Women: New (Re)Presentations, shows exactly that – the artist’s ever-growing language of symbols with a concentrated yet expansive body of work based upon the traditional academic drawing of the female nude figure.

Based on figure drawings from life models, McGinness’ ‚Women‘ series captures the essence of beauty in its simplicity of form. He explains, “Two parallel desires drive these new Women drawings: My desire to simplify and iconify the underlying visually logical geometries inherent in my figure drawings in order to better understand my subject matter; and my desire to embrace and capture the purely aesthetic experience of graceful curves and sensual forms inherent in my models.”

Ryan McGinness

Quint

September 15th – November 3rd, 2012
547 Girard Ave
San Diego, CA 92037
USA

Calendar