PLUSH GALLERY

PLUSH GALLERY
918 Dragon Street, Dallas, TX 75207
214.915.0925
www.plushgallery.com

PLUSH GALLERY // MAY 12 // 6-9PM

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main gallery:
"Brian Ryden: Artificial I.D."
+ an installation by Brandon Behning
and paintings by Eugene White
+
project space:
"Dwayne Carter: Madness"

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Plush Gallery presents new abstract paintings by Brian Ryden in his first ever solo show, entitled
"Artificial I.D.". Ryden, a 2009 BFA graduate of the University of North Texas in Denton, has been
in a number of group shows at Plush, and is a resident artist of the Shamrock Hotel, host of the
recent Fallas Dart Air event.

The artist relates his newest paintings to artificial intelligence in the sense of "I like the idea of
having some sort of set man-created innate primal desire, like the replicants in Blade Runner.
As in, why would anyone want to give a person the passion to make art? The word 'tongueless',
from the Palace Brothers song comes to mind. I associate it with abstract work, lacking any
sort of replication of the outside world, which relates to no words but not a lack of sound.
This mixes in well with the heavy applied movement in my messy work."

Ryden's swaths of heavily applied brush work often appears to be cancelling out prior
marks, a visual barrier to the implied depth of his picture planes and imagery often hidden
beneath the slashing brush marks. Recent paintings have taken thin strips of tape, used
as masks, and reapplied them to the surface as painterly elements.

In conjunction, Santa Fe artist and Meow Wolf collective member Brandon Behning will
present an installation of new work entitled, "If I Won't Love You, Nobody Will". Behning's
work teeters on the abject, making use of idiosyncratic abandoned materials, like unto a
sort of ghetto Richard Tuttle. The artist had his first solo show at Plush in the fall of 2010,
followed by a solo show at the Plush Santa Fe pop-up space in Santa Fe in the summer of 2011.

Madison, Wisconsin painter Eugene White rounds out the main gallery artists, with an
installation of recent car paintings. White, who was recently featured in "Sonic
Architectonic" at the University of Texas at Dallas, makes brightly colored gestural
paintings of aging cars in both urban and rural settings. His work has a slightly nostalgic
feel, as he chooses car models based on both eccentricity and popularity. The cars are
isolated in their environment, Hopper-esque in their composItions, while also feeling like
squishy Ab Ex exercises. "Javelin AMX" and "Trans Am, Berkeley CA" are among his most
recent paintings.

In the project room, long-time Dallas artist Dwayne Carter will be featured in an installation
of life-size banners based on the third of his self-published "Midway to Madness" photo
novella series. The banners have an oversize gestural pop feeling, with a theme park
apocalyptic storyline, and models straight out of the local art scene. His recent work
combines photography and digital imaging, with the feeling of the hand-drawn and
painted work he is known for. Carter has recently been featured in exhibitions at the
Latino Cultural Center, the Kessler Theater, the University of Texas at Dallas, and in a solo
exhibition at Richland College.

Brian Ryden "Recall" 2011, acrylic and tape on panel, 14 x 11 in.