A new Film by Eric Minh Swenson

McCann's paintings are a part of an ongoing series that wryly reflects a sense of widespread exasperation and impatience with the fuzzy paradigms of wealth, power, and influence within the blue-chip contemporary art world. Each work is a "voodoo doll":a subversive, anonymous way of enacting suffering upon those artists he references. The artists, themselves, are not the primary targets. Rather, the cornering (sometimes unintentional, sometimes intentional) of the contemporary art market by nature of their financial prowess and institutionally-bolstered powers of critical influence is what McCann takes to task.

Eight celebrated artists become objects of freudenschade (an inverse of the common term "schadenfreude") for McCann's audience. Interpreted literally, the word means "sorrow at another person's success". McCann's murder and/or mutilation of these figures appears to be a violent gesture, but his aim is celebratory and not contemptuous. McCann's works offer no solutions. These exercises are not cheap shotsat rich men (and they are all men). McCann's works acknowledge the successes of these practitioners, in earnest. If they are damning in any respect, then it is laid upon the cycle of institutionalized art investment, exchanges, transactions, and global press coverage reaching a point of hysteria.

Ryan McCann consistently explores social constructs, creating works that encourages people to rethink and alter their perception of the mundane and awareness of everyday belief systems and realities. McCann creates as a painter, sculptor, photographer, and pyrographer constantly challenging himself to create works that encourage viewers to see the world differently.

McCann has exhibited nationally and internationally including exhibitions at Black Square Gallery (Miami, FL), Guy Hepner (New York, NY), LaunchLA (Los Angeles, CA), Inner State Gallery (Detroit, MI), Gregorio Escalante Gallery (Los Angeles, CA) along with the SCOPE Art Fairs in NYC, Miami, and Basel Switzerland. His works are held in major collections around the world including the University of California Los Angeles.


For more info on Eric Minh Swenson visit his website at emsartscene.com. His art films can be seen at [ Ссылка ]

Instagram : @ericminhswenson

Eric Minh Swenson also covers the international art scene and his writings and photo essays can be seen at Huffington Post Arts : [ Ссылка ]

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