See Something, Say Something
Ryan Bock
March 5 - March 11, 2019
Spring Break Art Show
In the world of Ryan Bock’s creation, the laws of physics do not dictate how shadows slope or light refracts. They are abandoned in favor of truncation and impossible perspective. Representations seeming, at first glance, to belong to this world are made strange by Bock’s fixation on shapes both organic and mechanical. His disoriented, often grayscale landscapes of art belong to the realm of human subconscious, and are as vast and lonely as they are prophetic and fevered.
Ranging in a variety of unique mediums—painting, sculpture, puppetry, film, jewelry, masks—Bock confronts the modern individual’s relationship to mortality, fear, and superstition. He often depicts correlations between the human figure and its innovations: technology, architecture, and religion, both historically and fictitiously. He, for example, tethers ancient and modern technology, thus introducing shapes of antiquity to machine-made ones of contemporary society.
By consistently contrasting historical issues with those of contemporary times, and using the recurring patterns found to generate predictions about our future—a process he refers to as dusty futurism—Bock propels his audience to question the routine human experience and disclose the illusions set in place to keep them from questioning.
Although the weight of his work is heavy, giving form to unexposed dark matter, it relays a relentless dedication to Bock’s exploration of how the private human mind can approach the overwhelming expanse of dictatorial structures. It reminds you that, even standing before the most impenetrable and complex problems of our time, you are autonomous.
In his installation See Something, Say Something at SPRING/BREAK Art Show, the unveiling of truth is not hopeless, but decisive. Bock suggests that the spreading of critical thought into the catacombs of our world can produce light from the inside out. ArtNews, Hyperallergic, and Observer each listed Bock’s installation as one of the best booths in their
coverage of the art fair.
About Ryan Bock
Ryan Bock is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. Ryan Bock specializes in painting, drawing, puppetry, animation and experimental film methods. Bock’s practice is rooted in a need for narrative structure. Residing somewhere between mythology and nightmare, Bock depicts mise-en-scène riddled with symbology and allusions both cinematic and painterly. Maintaining a fascination for shape, shade, shadow, structure and optical illusion, Bock deconstructs his subject matter into often barely-recognizable delineations and structurally unsound repetitive patterns. In an attempt to confront the contemporary individual’s relationship to mortality, fear and superstition, Bock depicts correlations between the human figure and its innovations: technology, architecture and religion—both historically and fictitiously. By consistently contrasting historical subjects with those of the present, and using the recurring patterns found to generate predictions about our future—a process he refers to as ‘dusty futurism’—Bock propels his audience to reconsider the routine human experience and discloses the illusions implemented to keep them from questioning.
Since receiving his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bock has shown at numerous galleries both nationally––New York, Miami, Dallas, Chicago, and Oakland––and internationally in Paris, London, and Prague, including seven solo exhibitions. His work has also been featured in group exhibitions at Christie’s New York and the Honolulu Museum of Art. During his time with Apostrophe NYC’s Base 12 Project, he participated in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Coney Island’s Luna Park, Mana Contemporary, and the MTA’s Kosciuszko Street J train Station. In 2019, Bock’s installation at SPRING/BREAK Art Show, and subsequent solo exhibition Somnambulist were featured by Hi-Fructose Magazine, ARTnews, Observer, and artnet News. He currently shows with Ki Smith Gallery and Ground Effect (Paris), and has works in several prominent private and public collections.