黑料不打烊

Tower 49 Gallery is pleased to present FREE FALL, a yearlong exhibition of new work by Cordy Ryman, including three site-specific installations: Lightning Vines, Root Vines, and Jupiter (all 2017).

Lightning Vines, which spans a 24-by-86-foot wall, is the largest sculpture ever created by the artist. Root Vines is a forest of multicolored two-by-fours facing the gallery鈥檚 north and south entrances, while Jupiter consists of a constellation of faux-red-marble paintings mounted on the red marble walls of the building鈥檚 Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM)-designed lobby, a stealthy pairing of illusion and reality.

Organized by Ai Kato, Exhibition Director of Tower 49 Gallery and guest curator Thomas Micchelli, the exhibition also includes dozens of smaller works, made primarily of wood, that bridge the realms of painting and sculpture. Ranging in height from four inches to nearly six feet, no two are alike, they represent the artist鈥檚 aesthetic of recycle and reuse, with many made from earlier works that have been taken apart and reassembled according to an entirely new set of variables. These works are installed in the gallery鈥檚 street-level space as well as in the Sky Lobby on the 24th floor.

Accident and intuition are the overriding forces in Ryman鈥檚 creative process. Despite the enormous scale of much of the work in the exhibition, the openness and humility intrinsic to the artist鈥檚 practice convey a warmth and humor that offer a unique take on the idea of public art, suggesting that it can be serious, raw, unconventional, and formally aggressive while remaining a joyous and welcoming presence in the civic and social environment.