All images: creation, installation, and gallery views of "Will Ryman: Anyone and No One," on view February 16th – March 24th, 2012 at both Paul Kasmin Gallery spaces: 293 Tenth Avenue, and 515 West 27th Street. Courtesy of the artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery.
Will Ryman's first exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery, "Anyone and No One," opened last week and takes over both of Kasmin's spaces in Chelsea.
In the first room of the 293 Tenth Avenue location is Everyman. It's a 90-foot sculpture of a man lying down, squeezed into the gallery space (almost like Alice and the house in Alice in Wonderland). His body is composed of found objects: 250 pairs of shoes create the shirt and 30,000 silver bottle caps create the feet, arms, and hands. The room adjacent is filled with over 200,000 paintbrushes stacked to create a meandering maze of 14-foot walls.
Ryman also dramatically transformed the 515 West 27th Street location with Bird. Towering at 16 feet and made of 1500 nails, the sculpture is somewhat inspired by Poe's The Raven. The surreal scale of the bird turns the space from a gallery into a cage.
"Anyone and No One" is a down-the-rabbit-hole experience and a continuation of Ryman's exploration of Absurdist philosophy. The exhibition will be on view through March 24, 2012.
