TRAVELING MERCIES
RYAN COSBERT
LUCE GALLERY
Turin, from March 24 to April 23, 2022
Online video featuring exhibition walkthrough
Exhibition view, Traveling Mercies, Ryan Cosbert, 2022, Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Luce Gallery is pleased to announce “Traveling Mercies”, the first solo show of Ryan Cosbert in Turin, from March 24 to April 23, 2022.
The young African-American painter of Haitian and Guyanese descent uses a tactile abstraction to communicate conceptual ideas deeply rooted in Black culture. The exhibition features twelve paintings characterized by a “tile” composition. Applying symbolic colors, texture, and objects, the artist conceives works that reference the consequences of subjugation and oppression of the Black community while often highlighting marginalized Black historical figures, communal experiences, or very held beliefs. The paintings seek to foster significant conversations that question the absence of these stories in our history while also exploring contemporary perspectives from Black individuals.
The title, Traveling Mercies, is an expression related to a type of Christian prayer said to protect travelers from the perils of travel, allowing them to arrive safely at their destination. This theme of requiring protection on a journey seems present in each painting. In keeping with her signature style, the “tiles'' are laid out in a checkerboard pattern along with thick textured brushstrokes and a palette imbued with meaning. The artist chose a collection of blues echoing the azure sky or cobalt ocean and hues of the Pan-African flag in red, green, yellow, and black implying the traveler, destination or origin. The energetic brushstrokes and use of bright colors draw the viewer in, while the grid-like composition hints at an underlying order and clarity of the message, revealed only in the titles. The strength of her work is how she has created a recognizable visual language using “tiles” and symbolic elements to express these highly-specific concepts drawn from her research and personal experience.
Fly High, Ode to Bessie Coleman (2022) resembles a cerulean sky filled with swirling white sky-writing and thick, white, cumulous-like “tiles” with gray undertones. Soaring in all directions, we see white paper airplanes, in varying sizes, attached to the surface of the painting. At the left of the composition, Cosbert paints a solid column of her grid in this thicker gray-white, almost to imply a storm brewing, like a wall of clouds rolling in.
Also, the artist hangs a beige rabbit foot charm on two of the paper planes, alluding to hopes of a successful journey. This well-known symbol of luck is a tradition that can be traced from enslaved African Americans back to African savanna folklore.
The exhibition walkthrough video will be online at www.lucegallery.com/video.php.
Ryan Cosbert, The Treatment Doesn't Warrant Staying, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 198.1 x 198.1 cm (78 x 78 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Ryan Cosbert, Summer of 1977, Ode to my Mother Maxine Cosbert, 2022, acrylic, maps, and glass beads on canvas, 198.1 x 198.1 cm (78 x 78 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Ryan Cosbert is born in 1999 in Brooklyn, New York, where she lives and works. She graduated with a BFA in 2021 from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York.
The practice of the African-American artist embraces abstraction. The work draws from her Haitian and Guyanese heritage, humanistic experiences, self-expression, political issues and rigorously researched historical narratives of the African diaspora.
Her paintings have been exhibited in the United States as well as in Europe, and acquired by private collections and public institutions including X Museum in Beijing, among others.
Ryan Cosbert, Fly High, Ode to Bessie Coleman, 2022, acrylic, paper airplanes, resin, and rabbit feet on canvas, 198.1 x 198.1 x 10.1 cm (78 x 78 x 4 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Ryan Cosbert, Silk Road, 2022, acrylic on canvas, panel 162.5 x 76.2 cm (64 x 30 in), overall size 162.5 x 228.6 cm (64 x 90 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Traveling Mercies - Ryan Cosbert
Luce Gallery
Turin, from March 24 to April 23, 2022
Opening: Thursday, March 24, 6:30 pm
Largo Montebello 40, Italy
Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 3:30 - 7:30 pm
+39 011 18890206 / info@lucegallery.com / Instagram: lucegallery
Online videos featuring exhibition walkthroughs: www.lucegallery.com/video.php
Ufficio Stampa: THE KNACK STUDIO / Tamara Lorenzi
tamara@theknackstudio.com / +39 347 0712934
info@theknackstudio.com / www.theknackstudio.com
TRAVELING MERCIES
RYAN COSBERT
LUCE GALLERY
Turin, from March 24 to April 23, 2022
Online video featuring exhibition walkthrough
Exhibition view, Traveling Mercies, Ryan Cosbert, 2022, Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Luce Gallery is pleased to announce “Traveling Mercies”, the first solo show of Ryan Cosbert in Turin, from March 24 to April 23, 2022.
The young African-American painter of Haitian and Guyanese descent uses a tactile abstraction to communicate conceptual ideas deeply rooted in Black culture. The exhibition features twelve paintings characterized by a “tile” composition. Applying symbolic colors, texture, and objects, the artist conceives works that reference the consequences of subjugation and oppression of the Black community while often highlighting marginalized Black historical figures, communal experiences, or very held beliefs. The paintings seek to foster significant conversations that question the absence of these stories in our history while also exploring contemporary perspectives from Black individuals.
The title, Traveling Mercies, is an expression related to a type of Christian prayer said to protect travelers from the perils of travel, allowing them to arrive safely at their destination. This theme of requiring protection on a journey seems present in each painting. In keeping with her signature style, the “tiles'' are laid out in a checkerboard pattern along with thick textured brushstrokes and a palette imbued with meaning. The artist chose a collection of blues echoing the azure sky or cobalt ocean and hues of the Pan-African flag in red, green, yellow, and black implying the traveler, destination or origin. The energetic brushstrokes and use of bright colors draw the viewer in, while the grid-like composition hints at an underlying order and clarity of the message, revealed only in the titles. The strength of her work is how she has created a recognizable visual language using “tiles” and symbolic elements to express these highly-specific concepts drawn from her research and personal experience.
Fly High, Ode to Bessie Coleman (2022) resembles a cerulean sky filled with swirling white sky-writing and thick, white, cumulous-like “tiles” with gray undertones. Soaring in all directions, we see white paper airplanes, in varying sizes, attached to the surface of the painting. At the left of the composition, Cosbert paints a solid column of her grid in this thicker gray-white, almost to imply a storm brewing, like a wall of clouds rolling in.
Also, the artist hangs a beige rabbit foot charm on two of the paper planes, alluding to hopes of a successful journey. This well-known symbol of luck is a tradition that can be traced from enslaved African Americans back to African savanna folklore.
The exhibition walkthrough video will be online at www.lucegallery.com/video.php.
Ryan Cosbert, The Treatment Doesn't Warrant Staying, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 198.1 x 198.1 cm (78 x 78 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Ryan Cosbert, Summer of 1977, Ode to my Mother Maxine Cosbert, 2022, acrylic, maps, and glass beads on canvas, 198.1 x 198.1 cm (78 x 78 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Ryan Cosbert is born in 1999 in Brooklyn, New York, where she lives and works. She graduated with a BFA in 2021 from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York.
The practice of the African-American artist embraces abstraction. The work draws from her Haitian and Guyanese heritage, humanistic experiences, self-expression, political issues and rigorously researched historical narratives of the African diaspora.
Her paintings have been exhibited in the United States as well as in Europe, and acquired by private collections and public institutions including X Museum in Beijing, among others.
Ryan Cosbert, Fly High, Ode to Bessie Coleman, 2022, acrylic, paper airplanes, resin, and rabbit feet on canvas, 198.1 x 198.1 x 10.1 cm (78 x 78 x 4 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Ryan Cosbert, Silk Road, 2022, acrylic on canvas, panel 162.5 x 76.2 cm (64 x 30 in), overall size 162.5 x 228.6 cm (64 x 90 in), Photo PEPE Fotografia, Courtesy the artist and Luce Gallery, Turin
Traveling Mercies - Ryan Cosbert
Luce Gallery
Turin, from March 24 to April 23, 2022
Opening: Thursday, March 24, 6:30 pm
Largo Montebello 40, Italy
Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 3:30 - 7:30 pm
+39 011 18890206 / info@lucegallery.com / Instagram: lucegallery
Online videos featuring exhibition walkthroughs: www.lucegallery.com/video.php
Ufficio Stampa: THE KNACK STUDIO / Tamara Lorenzi
tamara@theknackstudio.com / +39 347 0712934
info@theknackstudio.com / www.theknackstudio.com