Ryan McJunkin, Full Exposure

March 2, 2010 in ARTIST STUDIO VISITS

click on each image below to enlarge

Although he is from the Peninsula, I think Ryan McJunkin found home on the East Coast when he went to school there in Baltimore, he reminds me of an east coaster. Am I being a Regionalist? is that something you can be? he has kinda of this regal, intellectual vibe that is belies his dude-bro origins. I haven’t had a real chance to ever talk with Ryan before although his studio at the Compound is in close proximity to my gallery.

He had me over today for a visit to his North Oakland studio and I am proud to announce that we are planning a show of his work at Zza’s Wine Bar Gallery for the Fall. He will be showing in a super secret show I am planning at Swee(t)Art as well.

I fell in love instantly with this series. The image takes me back to a favorite spot of mine: the twilight wilderness. I carry that spot around with me and Ryan captured it in this screen print.

Baby bird skeletons? brilliant.

His living room has a number of pieces like the one below, I think this one is the most successful where he deals with seriality in a very dynamic, almost maniacally collective way.

The secret….the exposure machine where he burns his screened illustrations, a process that eludes me utterly but one with which he is a master screen burner.

Don’t let me fool you, although a lot of his work is printed, the guy has a ton of sketchbooks, the kind of collection you only get from many years of daily work. I love to see that. It grants huge license.

He was reticent to show me his sketchbooks because, as he says, nothing finished is in them! kind the point.

Below are two series of figurative print/drawings I was particularly interested in. His relationship to image reproduction is taken in a new direction and his sense of life drawing is kept alive despite the burned image. The scale is just right and his embellishments are spot on.