NYC’s Mary Boone Gallery is hosting the latest solo exhibition by artist Ryan McNamara, titled Gently Used and running at their Fifth Avenue location from January 8 to February 28.
The Piper Marshall-curated show exhibits some of McNamara’s new work, spanning from sculptural pieces and photography, video, dance and performance. Like always, the artist’s work deconstructs the notion of “live” art, exploring the space that exists between what is perceived as art and what is perceived as reality; his earlier “provocations”, like the incredible Sacred Band of Thebes AKA Any Fag Could Do That performed at Performa 09, X Initiative back in 2009 play with sexuality, both as performance and as simple existence.
And Gently Used takes the materiality of these performances both literally and figuratively, creating an exhibition out of the specialized materials used in the live choreographed pieces (costumes, props, archival images, promotional ephemera) by re-fashioning the them into collages that “extend from the wall, tumble over pedestals, emerge from the ceiling, and literally climb from their frames”. The effect becomes one of enacting the cyclical nature of art and performance: “Event generates material, material becomes art object, art object performs, only to be used as prop once again.”
See the exhibition page for details. **
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