New paintings. Simultaneously winsome and melancholic, Bryan's works allude to Classical themes of portraiture and still lives, but bring his compositions into the present by using recurring motifs of bicycles, vinyl records and other quotidian details.
Zach Feuer Gallery is pleased to present new paintings by Los Angeles based artist
Edgar Bryan. This
is Bryan's first show with the gallery.
Simultaneously winsome and melancholic, Bryan's paintings allude to Classical
themes of portraiture and
still lives, but bring his compositions into the present by using recurring motifs
of bicycles, vinyl records
and other quotidian details. Often incorporating the artist himself into his
pictures, his paintings share
a distinct, casual style with a flat surface and subdued palette. Bryan's most
recent work offers a
perversely classical set of themes: the nude artists' model and the still
life. Here nudes posing with
daggers and drapery that evoke an art class milieu vie with groupings of ceramics
painted not from life
but from the imagination. Topped off with a small self-portrait of the artist
hunched over a tiny canvas,
furiously at work, this exhibition offers an idiosyncratic and personal portrayal
of traditional art-making.
Edgar Bryan was born 1970 in Birmingham, Alabama and currently lives and works in
Los Angeles. He
received his MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2001. He has
had recent solo shows
at Regen Projects, Los Angeles, Galleria Il Capricorno, Venice, and c/o Atle
Gerhardsen, Berlin. He
has participated in group shows at White Columns, New York, the UCLA Hammer Museum,
Los
Angeles, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, London. His paintings are in the
collection of the
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, MOCA, Los Angeles, and the Museum der
Moderne
Salzburg, Austria.
Opening reception: February 22, 6-8 pm
Zach Feuer Gallery
530 West 24th Street - New York
Open: Tuesday - Saturday 10-6
Free admission