Ryan McGinley

The first European exhibition of the artist, Ryan McGinley (New Jersey, USA, 1978) will show some 20 photographs that gather the more representative formal and thematic characteristics of the author. In the line of photographers such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Nan Goldin or Larry Clark, his images are diaries of the very life of the photographer; usually scenes where the protagonists are friends and acquaintances, in groups or individual portraits.

Photographs that seem to be the document of a particular generation which show how behavioural patterns which are related to the youth such as skateboarders, graffiti painters, etc. The images of McGinley thus analyze the dividing line between the public and the private, in such a way that the photographic camera becomes an accomplice of the life of the photographed such as those who observe.

There are many artists who make use of the camera to photograph and record their own circle of friends, lovers, including their families. Autobiography is again reflected in the powerful scenes of Ryan McGinley, from Tim Falling, Dakota Hair, through photographs that show a group of friends bathing underwater and those that have been converted into aquatic elements upon the freeze frame of the camera.

The spontaneity of his photographs appears in each and every one of the themes that he resorts to: music, sex or the different urban subcultures. He converts the camera into an extension of himself and reflects parties, night-outs, portraits, etc., always showing high pictoricism. His images, at the same time, use different tones of color through the use of light. Powerful and suggestive images that, far from being mere anecdotic testimonies, are converted into witnesses that surround a reality: that of McGinley himself.

Ryan McGinley, Short biographical note Ryan McGinley (New Jersey, USA, 1978), studied photography at the Parsons School of Design in New York and soon became one of the most promising Americans in the field of contemporary photography, above all, starting from the publication of a book of photographs that he, himself, made in the year 2000 entitled, The Kids are Alright. He has participated in international biennials and has collaborated with different galleries. The most noteworthy is his individual exhibition in 2004 under the title, New Photographs, in the PS1 – MoMA, New York. He currently lives and works in New York.

Laboratorio 987, Project Room of MUSAC Laboratorio 987, a site-specific project room of MUSAC (Contemporary Art Museum based in León, Spain) is an adjoining space that functions independently from the general program of the museum. The first artist to exhibit in this space was Silvia Prada (Ponferrada, Spain, 1969), with the site-specific project, Hot or Not, from April to May 2005. The video exhibition of Fikret Atay (Batman, Turkey, 1976) followed under the title, Sonidos lejanos / Distant Sounds. The third project undertaken in this space was entitled, Esconde la mano, by the artist Abigail Lazkoz (Bilbao, Spain, 1972). Tania Pardo (Madrid, 1976) is the curator and responsible for the program of Laboratorio 987 for the years 2005-2006.

Pressetext

Laboratorio 987
Ryan McGinley: Between us / Entre nosotros
Kurator: Tania Pardo