LIZA RYAN: SPILL

June 17 - July 18th, 2009

Please join us to celebrate Liza Ryan: Spill published by Reed College on the occasion of her recent exhibition there.

On view at the gallery will be two major photo-based works by Ryan.  In these works, Ryan explores a theme that recurs throughout her work: an imagined, more intimate relationship between the human and the natural worlds. 

Spill, which was the centerpiece of the exhibition at Reed College, is a 30 foot long multi-panel piece in which images of nature and the human form are grafted together to create a running narrative that is filmic in nature.  Ryan then spilled india ink on the surface of the images manipulating it to form a continuous, organic line connecting each of the images.

Something tells me she didn’t look back was originally commissioned for the 2006 Biennale of Sydney and represents a turning point in Ryan’s working process.  While she had previously experimented with cutting through and drawing upon her photographs, this work incorporated both to a much greater extent than in the past.  Additionally, the format of more than forty individual photographs composed in an irregular grid was a departure for Ryan and allowed her to further explore the visual and narrative relationships of the imagery.  

Liza Ryan’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally for the last decade.   In the spring of 2009, Ryan’s solo exhibition at the Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College opened.   She was one of four American artists selected to exhibit at the 2006 Biennale of Sydney and has also been included in museum exhibitions at The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Miami Art Museum.  In addition, her work is held in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Maison Européen de la Photographie, Paris, among others.  Liza Ryan was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1965. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.