ARTISTS
Dylan Ryu: Expect the Unexpected
Gallery EM is pleased to present “Expect the Unexpected,” our first solo show of Korean artist Dylan Ryu, from April 17th to March 16th, 2015. Born and educated in Korea, Ryu began her career designing for established brands, such as Club Monaco and Thursday Island, and subsequently moved to New York City, where she worked as a fashion consultant and feature editor for Marie-Claire. In 2002, Ryu went in an entirely new direction by tapping into her creativity and imagination to create one-of-a-kind objects. She began reinventing vintage handbags, such as the iconic Kelly bag by Hermes or the classic 2.55 Chanel quilted bags, by festooning them with unique antique charms, ribbons, and other emblems, scouted out from the flea markets of New York and Paris. Inspired by French movies and songs from the first decades of the postwar period, Ryu considers herself a “vintage connector,” who juxtaposes disparate objects in order to produce fresh symbolic associations that recount history, while exuding unexpected nostalgia, romanticism, and beauty.
Employing a similar method of production, Ryu’s latest works are complex, multilayered images that hark back to the long tradition of collage invented by the Cubists and further developed by Dada during the first half of the century. By searching through old magazine issues, spanning from the 1920s to the 70s, Ryu obtains vintage ads of renowned brands--Byrrh (a no longer produced aperitif), Chanel, and Hermes, for example. She then embellishes these ads by stitching and adhering bits of leather, tape, and metal that also hail from these distant time periods. The result are carefully balanced compositions that appeal both to the eye and the sense of touch, while offering a glimpse into a historical moment.
The black-and-white Chanel ads, for instance, have a definite Mod look that betray their origins in the 1960s. Removed from the pages of Playboy, these particular works remind us of the gender dynamics of the period, when ads of consumer products for women were placed in men’s magazine because of the expectation that men--the demographic with the most purchasing power--would be the one’s buying such goods as gifts for their romantic interests. Reminiscent of the Surrealist’s objet 迟谤辞耻惫别’, Ryu’s sculptures similarly grant our imaginations access to equally remote times and places by decorating objects, such as lamps, wine bottles, and furniture, with lace, tassels, and other textiles. No matter her chosen medium, Ryu succeeds in opening a window in time that allows her viewers to transcend the distance that separates the present from the past.
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Gallery EM is pleased to present “Expect the Unexpected,” our first solo show of Korean artist Dylan Ryu, from April 17th to March 16th, 2015. Born and educated in Korea, Ryu began her career designing for established brands, such as Club Monaco and Thursday Island, and subsequently moved to New York City, where she worked as a fashion consultant and feature editor for Marie-Claire. In 2002, Ryu went in an entirely new direction by tapping into her creativity and imagination to create one-of-a-kind objects. She began reinventing vintage handbags, such as the iconic Kelly bag by Hermes or the classic 2.55 Chanel quilted bags, by festooning them with unique antique charms, ribbons, and other emblems, scouted out from the flea markets of New York and Paris. Inspired by French movies and songs from the first decades of the postwar period, Ryu considers herself a “vintage connector,” who juxtaposes disparate objects in order to produce fresh symbolic associations that recount history, while exuding unexpected nostalgia, romanticism, and beauty.
Employing a similar method of production, Ryu’s latest works are complex, multilayered images that hark back to the long tradition of collage invented by the Cubists and further developed by Dada during the first half of the century. By searching through old magazine issues, spanning from the 1920s to the 70s, Ryu obtains vintage ads of renowned brands--Byrrh (a no longer produced aperitif), Chanel, and Hermes, for example. She then embellishes these ads by stitching and adhering bits of leather, tape, and metal that also hail from these distant time periods. The result are carefully balanced compositions that appeal both to the eye and the sense of touch, while offering a glimpse into a historical moment.
The black-and-white Chanel ads, for instance, have a definite Mod look that betray their origins in the 1960s. Removed from the pages of Playboy, these particular works remind us of the gender dynamics of the period, when ads of consumer products for women were placed in men’s magazine because of the expectation that men--the demographic with the most purchasing power--would be the one’s buying such goods as gifts for their romantic interests. Reminiscent of the Surrealist’s objet 迟谤辞耻惫别’, Ryu’s sculptures similarly grant our imaginations access to equally remote times and places by decorating objects, such as lamps, wine bottles, and furniture, with lace, tassels, and other textiles. No matter her chosen medium, Ryu succeeds in opening a window in time that allows her viewers to transcend the distance that separates the present from the past.
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