Cordy Ryman uses a variety of found and recycled materials to make inventive paintings and installations. Gathering 2x4s, metal, plywood, cardboard, fluorescent paint, Velcro, glue, staples, sawdust, scraps from the studio floor, and his own discarded artworks, he constructs assemblages that hybridize painting and sculpture. Ryman experiments with many different types of paint, but he builds abstractions as much as he paints them. With both large-scale installations and smaller pieces, the artist is always interested in the dialogue between the work and its surroundings. Ryman’s variations on similar themes always appear fresh, even when they are fashioned from recycled scraps. His constant reshuffling of materials and repetition of forms create visual rhythms that echo and reverberate across the surfaces of his works. Fluent in the language of modernism, Ryman speaks it in a light-hearted and even humorous manner. His work respects the unfinished and elevates the imperfect.
