Artist Ryan Frank blurs the boundaries between sculpture, photography and performance with his handsomely finished wooden boxes.
To view the exhibition move through the large-scale objects, climb over, under and around them, look up and look down in order the view the images inside the boxes. Frank describes the movement through the gallery as a dance that encourages a heightened sense of physical capability and visual awareness: “My sculptures are not solely inanimate objects to be looked at but also exist as a catalyst for the physical movement and interaction of my viewers. Reflections and distorted views of the gallery space and the outside world are presented in a unique sequence that requires visitors to contort their bodies in unorthodox ways. The series of images in each box portrays a specific time and place and the effort required to view them is similar to that which I endured to take them.”
Frank received degrees in Theatre and Fine Art from New York University. His light-box sculptures have expanded his perception of how performance can function as a form of research and how his practice exists outside the realm of visual art.
A live, interactive and time-based presentation that explores the physicality of looking, showcasing dancers interacting with Frank’s sculptures as set pieces will be presented at the Mattatuck Museum’s Performing Arts Center on Saturday, October 4th.
Balance Beam is on view until Oct. 12, 2014. For more information, please check out: Mattatuck Museum.
Ryan Frank is an artist and curator based in Brooklyn, NY and Sharon, CT. He’s exhibited his work at venues including Recession Art, the Invisible Dog Art Center, the Re Institute, 112 Greene Street, and the DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival. From 2010-11 he was an artist-in-residence at the Wassaic Project and since 2012 he’s overseen art installation for the organization. Recent curatorial projects include Ode Hotel at the Wassaic Project, Used Books at the Winkleman Gallery Curatorial Research Lab, and Reflective Landscape at the Granary, a private exhibition space in Litchfield County, CT. Ryan studied performance and art history at New York University, where he received dual degrees in theatre and fine art in 2004.