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| | ARTIST NAME: | Sluggett, Ryan | | ACCESSION NUMBER: | 2009.071.001 | | TITLE: | FIGURE OF CRITICALITY | | DATE: | 2005 | | CATEGORY: | Painting | | MEDIUM: | acrylic, oil | | SUPPORT: | canvas | | DIMENSIONS: | Actual: 161 x 122.5 cm (63 3/8 x 48 1/4 in.)
Frame: 165 x 124.5 x 5.5 cm (64 15/16 x 49 x 2 3/16 in.) | | COLLECTION: | Alberta Foundation for the Arts |
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| | OTHER HOLDINGS: | Sluggett, Ryan | | ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Ryan Sluggett is a multi-media artist whose primary focus lies in painting and drawing, with interests in collage, film and animation, sculpture and print-making. His Cubist-inspired works, rich in art-historical references, often reflect the contemporary world from various vantage points, addressing suburban angst and pop culture themes. Critics have remarked on the contradictions in Ryan’s practice, which is both current and art historical, serious and humorous, exuberant and refined. He earned a BFA with Distinction in Painting from Calgary’s ACAD in 2003. Among his mentors there were Chris Cran and Eric Cameron. Ryan’s first solo show, On Posturing, held in 2004 at the Art Gallery of Calgary, was curated by Cameron. Ryan moved to Los Angeles in 2008, graduating with an MFA from UCLA in 2011. He lives in Los Angeles, but still exhibits regularly in Calgary, where he is represented by TrépanierBaer Gallery.
The tension between the moving and the still image is explored in his animated films. Diderot’s Indulgent Vistas (2005) and Tyranny use stop-action photography, paint, collage and bricolage to create surrealistic narratives of great energy. Tyranny was included in the 2007 Biénnale de Montréal: Crack the Sky.
Many of Sluggett’s works explore the relationship between the self and the audience, implicating the viewer. Rather than canvas, he uses transparent poly-poplin material for his paintings, allowing the frame to show through below. He draws, dyes, tapes and stitches, overlays with dangling edges, and paints over the top, leaving traces of his process, as well as hints of a story behind the scenes. In many of his pieces, the figures are difficult to identify, as the works are more concerned with the relationship of colours. “Wig Slip (Male)” (2013) has been called an abstracted portrait. The obscured falling hairpiece and expletive symbols ask us to complete the meaning. The distorted perspectives and saturated colours gesture at Matisse and Picasso. Other works of his recall Cézanne and Rubens. Sluggett, very respectful of the painting tradition, is interested in creating works that bear sustained looking and that evolve over time in the viewer’s eyes.
Ryan received the Alumni Award of Excellence from ACAD in 2016, as well as several research and travel awards. He has had solo and group shows in Calgary, Toronto, Halifax and Chicago. His work is found in collections at the Glenbow Museum and Nickle Gallery, Calgary; the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; the Booth Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago; and the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center of UCLA.
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