NEW YORK, NY.- Miles McEnery Gallery is presenting an exhibition of paintings by Ryan McGinness titled, New Narratives. The artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery opened on 20 October at 515 West 22nd Street and will remain on view through 26 November. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring an essay by Hilarie M. Sheets.

This new body of work by McGinness represents a change for the artist toward addressing the picture plane as a whole. Rather than individual symbol drawings collaged together to create abstract compositions, figurative pictures now hold together the compositions. Sheets writes in her essay, “In a dramatic shift in the way he pieces together his paintings, McGinness is now using a single drawing as the skeleton or lattice for an entire canvas... In the most personal show of his career, McGinness is using images plucked from his domestic life as a departure point for paintings that he has constructed as singular images rather than a collage of many.”

In addition to paintings of his family, McGinness also depicts potted plants, flowers, and figures inspired by stock photography. While representing specific singular situations from afar, the viewer is simultaneously drawn into the narratives to investigate intricate details close up—a signature of McGinness’ prey is presenting an exhibition of paintings by Ryan McGinness titled, New Narratives. The artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery opened on 20 October at 515 West 22nd Street and will remain on view through 26 November. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring an essay by Hilarie M. Sheets.

This new body of work by McGinness represents a change for the artist toward addressing the picture plane as a whole. Rather than individual symbol drawings collaged together to create abstract compositions, figurative pictures now hold together the compositions. Sheets writes in her essay, “In a dramatic shift in the way he pieces together his paintings, McGinness is now using a single drawing as the skeleton or lattice for an entire canvas... In the most personal show of his career, McGinness is using images plucked from his domestic life as a departure point for paintings that he has constructed as singular images rather than a collage of many.”




In addition to paintings of his family, McGinness also depicts potted plants, flowers, and figures inspired by stock photography. While representing specific singular situations from afar, the viewer is simultaneously drawn into the narratives to investigate intricate details close up—a signature of McGinness’ previous works. Sheets continues, “In New Narratives, McGinness has taken on the challenges of traditional painting genres—landscape, figure, still life—albeit in a way that remains entirely on-brand for the artist. Perception Management (2020), anchoring one wall in the exhibition, still has a cacophony of individual icons, looping and layered edge to edge.”

Ryan McGinness (b. 1972 in Virginia Beach, VA) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. He also worked as a curatorial assistant at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA.

Recent solo exhibitions include “kraftworks” at Baldwin Gallery, Aspen, CO; “Mindscapes” at Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; Harper’s Books, East Hampton, NY; AishoNanzuka, Hong Kong; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Quint Gallery, La Jolla, CA; Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA; Pace Prints, New York, NY; Galerie Forsblom, Helsini, Finland; Deitch Projects, New York, NY; Cincinatti Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH and MoMA PS1. New York, NY.

Recent group exhibitions include “Really.” (curated by Inka Essenhigh & Ryan McGinness), Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Artists for New York,” Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Library Street Collective, Detroit, MI; Lille Métropole Musée d’Art Moderne, Lille, France; Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; MoMA PS1, New York, NY and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.

The work of Ryan McGinness may be found in the collections of the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH; AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Amorepacific Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; Saastamoinen Foundation, EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland CA and Taguchi Art Collection, Tokyo, Japan.