It's easy to forget that Ryan McGinley began taking photographs a decade ago, before the mass proliferation of image making and sharing in the wake of social media platforms. McGinley’s photographic voice, informed by memories of his older siblings and their friends, and the death of his older brother when McGinley was just 17, has been emulated by many young photographers in recent years, revered for their atmosphere of nostalgia, caprice and transience – and their absence of cynicism. The New York-based artist’s preternatural nudes are visions of an American utopia of youth.
McGinley’s concurrent exhibitions at Team (gallery, inc.) – Fall, in Los Angeles and Winter, in New York – present a shift in the artist’s practice, moving away from his iconic Road Trip imagery. The nude has always been central in McGinley’s oeuvre, but in these new images, his interest in the body as pure form and movement is more salient than previously. Inspired by the romantic style of the Hudson River painters in the Northwest, the lush archetypal seasonal settings scintillate through McGinley’s lens.
In large-scale works such as Sugar, Paul (Frederic) and Deep Well, (all editions of three, 2015, and on show in Los Angeles) the juxtaposition between the rich fall colors and the almost abstracted body - both temporary and transitional in their photographed state – conjures that fleeting feeling that typifies McGinley’s work, but here it is offered with greater confidence, without the immediate invitation to narrate the image that earlier works often elicit.
Surprisingly, this is McGinley’s first solo presentation in Los Angeles, at the Team gallery’s bungalow space in Venice – on view until 20 December.
The nude has always been central in McGinley’s oeuvre, but in these new images, his interest in the body as pure form and movement is more salient than previously shown. Pictured: Ivy, Judds Cherry, 2015
Inspired by the romantic style of the Hudson River painters in the Northwest, the lush archetypal seasonal settings scintillate through McGinley’s lens. Pictured: Kaaterskill Falls, 2015 (left) and Piss Falls, 2015 (right)
In large-scale works such as Deep Well, 2015 (pictured), the juxtaposition between the rich fall colors and the almost abstracted body conjures that fleeting feeling that typifies McGinley’s work
Surprisingly, Fall is McGinley’s first solo presentation in Los Angeles, at the Team gallery’s bungalow space in Venice. Pictured: Big Leaf Maple, 2015 (left) and Dogbane, 2015 (right)
Peepers, 2015
INFORMATION
Winter is now on view until 20 December at Team gallery in New York and Fall is on view until 20 December in Los Angeles
Photography courtesy of the artist and Team gallery
-
Our Tech Editor's selection of new and upgraded audio players covers the full spectrum of formatsWhether it’s vinyl, cassette, CD or mp3, or even sound sources you’ve captured yourself, you’ll find a suitable device in this round-up of pocketable and portable audio players
-
This Swedish summer house is a family's serene retreat by the trees and the Baltic seaHorsö, a Swedish summer house by Atelier Alba is a playfully elegant retreat by the Kalmarsund Sea and a natural reserve
-
A new exhibition retraces 50 years of Pierre Paulin’s history around the table‘Les Tables de Pierre Paulin’ shows a lesser-known side of the designer’s creative world, accompanied by a new book tracing his wife’s hospitality around his iconic table designs. ‘A creator is never alone in his creation…’
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next DoorThe Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New YorkViolet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American WestThe artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
-
Dark, glamorous and hedonistic: a photography book captures New York in the 1990sNew York: High Life, Low Life, by Dafydd Jones, goes behind the scenes of New York society
-
Derrick Alexis Coard’s portraits are a sensitive, positive testimony to Black menThe late artist Derrick Alexis Coard’s retrospective ‘I Am That I Am’, at New York’s Salon 94, honours his ‘symbolic expression for possible change for the African-American male community’
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in PhiladelphiaArtist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
-
First look: Sphere’s new exterior artwork draws on a need for human connectionWallpaper* talks to Tom Hingston about his latest large-scale project – designing for the Exosphere
