Ryan Price: A Distant Mirror / Closing

With the mysterious cityscapes of de Chirico, assemblage figures recalling Dada's automatons and the mannequins of Carrà, the absurd machinations of Remedios Varo, and the archeological reminiscence of Salvador Dalí, Ryan Otero Price explores farcical parables and mythological fables, inspecting mortality but with the whimsy of a jester.

These disconcerting dreamscapes are littered with danse macabre, dressed up in masque. The effect is both fanciful and formidable.

Drawing from the scuola metafisica movement of the early twentieth-century, Price's paintings and prints return to the roots of surrealism, examining the landscapes of modernity but with a fractured aspect. Using Classical and medieval sources as points of reference, this work drags nineteenth-century Romanticism through the treachery of images.

Ryan's surreal still life compositions and enigmatic figural combinations–the minaret-women, cyclopian luthiers, skeletal creatures in cap 'n' bells, motley jinns, and the tokusatsu sword fighter–recreate the workings of dreams, suggesting the Freudian technique of free association. These juxtaposed objects and figures transmute mythologies into signs that transcend the intervention of the conscious mind.

Considering this exploration of the unconditioned and the absurd, it is no surprise that Ryan pays homage to the lost art of the limerick in his poetry. Contained within the collection included in this show are illustrated pieces that provide further insight into Price's creative process. A Distant Mirror: Poems & Pictures gives the impression of simultaneous eruption of allegory in word and form through automatism, shaping the subconscious into sooth.

-

Ryan Otero Price (b. 1994) is a central Florida based artist and poet. Price's imaginary worlds and use of caricature to invoke humor come alive in this suite of drawings and poems.

Instagram: @ryan.o.price Tik Tok: @ryan.o.price www.ryanoprice.com