Details:
① Artwork:
Steep Ravine
A glowing yellow hue envelopes this painting, only interrupted by a blushing wall of blues and a soft brown line echoing the form above it. An inviting school of orbs file themselves between rivers of pink and white. Inspired by the rocky cliff sides at Steep Ravine, the artist paints a lyrical depiction of place meant to encourage a serene silence for the viewer.
Whelan creates work as a means of self-confrontation, and he treats paintings as objects that must react to the environment around them—thereby mirroring the same dynamic our surroundings have on us. The artist does this by using texture as color, often building up gestural impasto layers of paint to construct surfaces that dance with light. The resulting compositions experientially change as the day goes by.
Specs:
③ Artist:
Ryan Whelan uses abstract and element forms as a means for self-confrontation, creating scenes of his inner world. The artist uses texture as color, often building up gestural impasto layers of paint into surfaces that dance with light; the resulting compositions experientially change as the day goes by. For Whelan, paintings are objects that must react to their environment—mirroring the same dynamic our surroundings have on us.
BIO:
Ryan Whelan was born in 1991. The artist grew up in Torrance, California, and received a BFA in Printmaking from San Francisco State University in San Francisco, California.
Whelan’s work has been exhibited at: the Kala Institute in San Francisco, California; Good Mother Gallery in Oakland, California; pt.2 Gallery in Oakland, California; Athen B. Gallery in Oakland, California; as well as venues in Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles, California; and Paris, France.
Whelan lives and works in Oakland, California.