Rob Ryan 'There is Only Time' by Sims Reed

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Rob Ryan There is Only Time Exhibition: October 23rd - November 8th 2013

Sims Reed Gallery The Economist Building 30 Bury Street London SW1Y 6AU T +44 (0)20 7930 5111 F +44 (0)20 7930 1555 E gallery@simsreed.com www.gallery.simsreed.com

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TAG FINE ARTSARTS info@tagfinearts.com www.tagfinearts.com

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“Even though I know that we both dreamed the same dreams, I still wish that we had known each other as children”

‘Dreamed The Same Dreams’ Papercut, 2013. 81 x 92 cm £9,600

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“Even though we were only both very small the roots of our heart ran down so very deep right into the heart of the planet and its hot beating heart answered in approval and exploded with joy. Up through the earths thin crust the clouds grew dark and blocked out the light of the sun and people all across the land howled and cried God is angry with us. They thought it really was the end of the world when really it was only the beginning”

‘It Was Only The Beginning’ Papercut, 2013. 96.5 x 81 cm £7,800

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“My tree never had any roots but it continued to grow nevertheless and I took it everywhere I went. I carried it mile after mile after mile and then I saw you and every word since then I’ve hung on a string only to hold you closer”

‘My Tree Never Had Any Roots...’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 10. Image size: 48 x 40 cm £480 (unframed) £690 (framed)

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“A Could You? Would You? Climb inside this tiny atom with me? It’s quite cosy and not as small as you might first think! In fact, there’s another whole world in here as big again as the universe itself. B The endless immensity of space used to fill me with an unsatisfied and fearful wonder. C What mysterious power kept it all in place? Not I nor even the world’s greatest scientists could fathom it out. D But since I’ve moved down here with you to live amongst the protons and neutrons I have begun to feel a fantastic force of energy buzzing all around me and I’ve finally realised that the invisible power that holds the entire universe together is your love.”

‘Sub-Atomic Love Story I’ Papercut, 2013. 123.5 x 123.5 cm £16,800

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“Even though I know that we both dreamed the same dreams, I still wish that we had known each other as children”

‘I Still Wish We Had Known Each Other As Children’ Papercut, 2013. 74 x 77 cm £7,800

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“In my head, every day, all day long, I sang my special song, a hidden thing, a simple waltz around and around just like how the world goes around and around. I looked at the world as my sing sang along and I saw the whole thing as one long dance that would go on forever. And then one day I heard someone else singing my song and I looked around and of course it was you. I never knew that your song was my song is now our song and when we’re gone this song will keep on going around and around to keep on telling the people of the world to never forget how sweet life is”

‘Your Song Was My Song Is Our Song’ Papercut, 2013. 81 x 84.5 cm £7,200

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‘It Was Only The Beginning (Orange Fade)’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 6. Image size: 80.5 x 63.5 cm £960 (unframed) £1,230 (framed)

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‘It Was Only The Beginning (Blue)’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 10. Image size: 80.5 x 63.5 cm £840 (unframed) £1,110 (framed)

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‘It Was Only The Beginning (Pink)’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 10. Image size: 80.5 x 63.5 cm £840 (unframed) £1,110 (framed)

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“I always said I’d do anything for you now you know I meant it. There isn’t a sea wide enough that I wouldn’t cross to be with you again”

‘I Always Said That I’d Do Anything For You’ Papercut, 2013. 73 x 74.5 cm ****

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“You work at it and you work at it. You still do it every time as if it was still your first shot and you whole life depended on it. You work at it and you work at it. As if it had to be better than anything you had done before”

‘You Work At It...’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 12. Image size: 54.5 x 46.5 cm £576 (unframed) £776 (framed)

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“As I understand it this was what happened. There was one big giant explosion and everything in the universe started to grow very very quickly, but for all of those billions and billions of years before we were born love didn’t exist in the universe at all. It just wasn’t there yet. Vast loveless years longer than you could ever imagine. Atoms joined other atoms to create new elements that would build countless new galaxies, but love and kindness played no part in it at all. Do we have to be so hard on ourselves to not even claim that it was through the goodness within us that it came about? But prefer to invent a story that it was bestowed on us by a man in the sky rather than admit it came from within our hearts. I look up and see how much the universe has grown and I feel that love. A newborn baby in comparison, has so much more evolving to do, love hasn’t even got started yet”

‘Love Hasn’t Even Got Started Yet’ Papercut, 2013. 81 x 81 cm £7,200

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“I write these words now on this lonely piece of paper, to nobody in the world except myself. And these marks I make here today with my little fingers by the time anybody sees them again they might be twice the size but their pattern will still be the same. But by then who will I be? What can I tell you? I don’t know what I want but i know what I don’t want. I want to be able to find out who the little person that lives inside me really is! I want to find out what incredible things he might be capable of achieving and if left to himself and if he really puts his mind to it. He might write a book or open a shop or discover something that might astound the entire world or produce a child made from love and then fill it up with even more. Goodness and love to send out into the world to make it even better not even worse. I don’t know a lot but I do know one thing, that none of this will ever happen here in this place surrounded by these people that deny the most simple of truths and their handsome and satisfied children that can’t be bothered to even dream of creating their own future.”

‘I Write These Words’ Papercut, 2013. 94 x 78 cm £7,200

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“These people without their clothes and their buildings could never survive. The cold kills them and the heat burns them but their strength is in their relentlessness. They endure and adapt but when they have enough they still want more. But more than anything they need each other and most of all they need love.”

‘...And Most Of All They Need Love’ Papercut, 2013. 84 x 66 cm £6,600

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(Detail shown overleaf)

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“The first lie was made only minutes after my birth. When you put clothes on me and dressed me up to look like you.”

‘That Was The First Lie’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 10. Image size: 32.5 x 24 cm £456 (unframed) £556 (framed)

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“Even though we were both only very very small the roots of our hearts ran down so deep right into the heart of the planet and its hot beating heart answered in approval and exploded with joy. Up through the earths thin crust and the ash clouds grew dark and blocked out the light of thesun and people all across the land cried and howled ‘God is angry with us’. They really believed that it was the end of the world when really it was just the beginning”

‘It Was Just The Beginning’ Papercut, 2013. 112 x 138 cm £12,000

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“Could You? Would You? Climb inside this tiny atom with me? It’s quite cosy and not as small as you might first think!! In fact, there’s another whole world in here as big again as the universe itself!!! The endless immensity of space used to fill me with an unsatisfied and fearful wonder. What mysterious power kept it all in place? Not I nor even the world’s greatest scientists could fathom it out. But since I’ve moved down here with you to live amongst the protons and neutrons I have begun to feel a fantastic force of energy buzzing all around me and I’ve finally realised that the invisible power that holds the entire universe together is your love”

‘Sub-Atomic Love Story II’ Papercut, 2013. 83 x 87 cm ****

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Detail: ‘Sub-Atomic Love Story II’

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“You work at it and you work at it. You still do it every time as if it was still your first shot and your whole life depended on it. You work at it and you work at it. As if it had to be better than anything you had done before”

‘You Work At It And You Work At It (Red)’ Papercut, 2013. 69.5 x 61.5 cm £5,400

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“The Pearls Story. Way down deep below the chaos of the crashing waves, down on the ocean floor where all is quiet and still. There in the darkness we grew as we slept for years locked tight inside our rocky little homes, not a soul in the world knew that we were even there. It was the very secret of our unknown existence that made us precious and that beauty died the moment we were discovered and our shells finally and brutally prised open. We were sold into slavery to be shackled along a golden chain and end up draped around your pale and slender neck to be admired by the entire town. Our misery was now complete. And even though we were now resigned to our new life of agonising daily public scrutiny there was still one surprise more to come! Of all the people in the world it was you alone who felt our unhappiness at being constantly observed. You took your sharp little knife and cut the same square shape, page after page, and then you unclasped us for the very last time and placed us gently inside our new home and closed the book and climbed up the tallest ladder and placed it on the highest shelf in the library. And in the beautiful dark we fell asleep and forgot anything had ever happened”

‘The Pearls Story’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 15. Image size: 46.6 x 47.8 cm £600 (unframed) £740 (framed)

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“The village grew Into a town and the town grew into a whole city. The tree grew up to the sky and the river grew as it flowed to the sea. And the flowers, well they grew until they covered the whole field and from inside the depths of our hearts you grew as well. Every single day a tiny bit. But yet still inside you there will never be a shortage to the amount of love your heart can grow, and day by day and year by year, you can grow in your heart still more care and more sympathy and more trust and more kindness until it finally blossoms and its flowers cover the entire world. More and more of you. And all of the long days and all of the short days will add up to more of you until there is no more growing left to be grown.”

‘The Village Grew Into A Town’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 10. Image size: 78 x 54 cm £840 (unframed) £1,110 (framed)

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“Even though I know that we both dreamed the same dreams, I still wish that we had known each other as children”

‘I Still Wish We Had Known Each Other As Children’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 10. Image size: 53 x 59 cm £480 (unframed) £700 (framed)

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“There is no such thing as free time. There is no such thing as spare time. There is no such thing as play time. There is no such thing as work time. There is no such thing as quality time. There is no such thing as down time. There is no such thing as the wrong time. There is no such thing as the right time”

‘There Is Only Time’ Papercut, 2013. 125 x 166.7 cm £20,400

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(Detail shown overleaf)

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“These people without their clothes and their buildings could never survive. The cold kills them and the heat burns them but their strength is in their relentlessness. They endure and adapt but when they have enough they still want more, But more than anything they need each other and most of all they need love.”

‘...And Most Of All They Need Love’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 16. Image size: 66 x 48.6 cm £680 (unframed) £900 (framed)

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‘My Tree Never Had Any Roots...’ Papercut, 2013. 65 x 57 cm £4,560

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‘The Pearls Story’ Papercut, 2013. 61.5 x 63 cm £5,040

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“The invisible power that held the entire universe together was your love.”

‘The Invisible Power’ Papercut, 2013. 36.5 x 37.5 cm £3,600

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“Even though I know that we both dreamed the same dreams, I still wish that we had known each other as children”

‘Dreamed The Same Dreams’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 10. Image size: 64.5 x 75 cm £1,080 (unframed) £1,350 (framed)

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‘The Village Grew Into A Town...’ Papercut, 2013. 96 x 71 cm £7,800

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“Stars and planets are held in place by the power of gravity and the tiny molecules of an atom cannot live without its fellow protons and neutrons. The leaf cannot survive away from its tree just as much as the tree needs the soil in which it lives. When the part becomes separate from the whole it withers and dies. If everything in the universe is connected to each other, then why not us too?”

‘Why Not Us Too’ Papercut, 2013. 92.5 x 79.5 cm £7,680

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Rob Ryan E Catalogue_Layout 1 24/10/2013 10:11 Page 66

“The first lie was made only minutes after my birth. When you put clothes on me and dressed me up to look like you”

‘That Was The First Lie’ Papercut, 2013. 45 x 37.5 cm £3,600

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Rob Ryan E Catalogue_Layout 1 24/10/2013 10:11 Page 68

“As I understand it this is what happened, there was one big giant explosion and everything in the universe started to grow very very quickly, but for all of those billions and billions of years before we were born love didn’t exist in the universe at all. It just wasn’t there yet. Vast loveless years longer than you could ever imagine. Atoms joined other Atoms to create new elements that would build countless new galaxies, but love and kindness played no part in it at all. Do we have to be so hard on ourselves to not even claim that it was through the goodness within us that it came about? But prefer to invent a story that it was bestowed on us by a man in the sky rather than admit it came from within our hearts. I look up and see how much the universe has grown and I feel that love. A newborn baby in comparison, has so much more evolving to do , love hasn’t even got started yet”

‘Love Hasn’t Even Got Started Yet’ Screenprint in colours, 2013. Signed and numbered from the edition of 10. Image size: 62 x 62 cm £480 (unframed) £710 (framed)

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Rob Ryan Biography A highly acclaimed illustrator specialising in paper cuts and limited edition screen prints, Rob Ryan represented TAG Fine Arts at the London Art Fair as part of the gallery’s launch in 2007. Since then, his intricate and beguiling paper cuts have acquired a huge public following, and have appeared in collaborations with high profile figures in the fashion world including Lulu Guinness, Tatty Devine, Liberty London, Ernest Sewn, Paul Smith, Elle Magazine and Vogue. His designs illustrate his own book ‘This Is For You,’ a romantic fairy-tale told through paper cut art, and also ‘The Gift’ (a poignant children’s tale by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy). Ryan was included in the major show ‘Slash – Paper Under the Knife’ at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York in 2010. The same year, he was the subject of a highly acclaimed solo exhibition, ‘The Stars Shine All Day Too,’ at the Air Gallery in Dover Street, London, organised by TAG Fine Arts. Rob tells heartfelt stories through is art; some amusing, some poignant; some melancholy. These works look effortless and whimsical but they are painstakingly crafted. He cuts each papercut from the finest paper, with the smallest of scalpels, and his prints display a masterful level of clarity and detail.

Selected Exhibitions: 2013 There is only Time, TAG Fine Arts, Sims Reed Gallery, London 2012 The First Cut, Manchester City Galleries, Manchester, UK 2012 Rob Ryan: Our Adventure is About to Begin, TAG Fine Arts, SOHOTEL Artspace Gallery, New York City, NY 2012 Rob Ryan, Solo exhibition, Charleston House, East Sussex, UK 2011 The Art of Mapping, TAG Fine Arts, London, UK 2010 The Stars Shine All Day Too, TAG Fine Arts, Air Gallery, London 2010 My London, with TAG Fine Arts, Exposure Gallery, London 2010 Slash, paper under the knife (opened 2009) Museum of Arts and Design, New York 2009 Rob Ryan vinyl exhibition, Yorkshire Sculpture Park 2009 Ryan Town USA Earnest Sewn Co., New York, USA 2008 Book Launch – ‘This is for You’ published by Sceptre, available from TAG Fine Arts 2007 Papercuts Project Space, London Art Fair, TAG Fine Arts, London

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2006 The Stars Shine All Day Too, 17 Gallery, London 2006 Screenprint Show, Paul Smith, Tokyo, Japan 2006 Screenprint Show, Paul Smith, London 2005 Christmas Window Display, Liberty London 2005 See the Job do the Job, Hedspace, Brighton2005 Solo Show, Gallery Frank, London 2005 Solo Show, Vertigo Gallery, London 2004 The Museum of Us, Horse Hospital, London 2001 Screenprints, Studio Gallery, London 2000 Why is Modern Architecture Grey, Mummy? The Tabernacle, London 1999 Plates, Broomhill Sculpture Garden and Gallery, Barnstable, Devon 1997 Big Paintings, Worse than Hell Itself, London 1997 Turbulence, Princelet St Synagogue, London 1996 Kneetrember, Conway Hall, London 1995 Nobody Remembers, I remember, Alternative Arts, London 1995 Mad in England, Oirschott Kunst, Eindhoven, NL 1994 There will be free art wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t there Sarge? Alternative Arts, London 1993 Come on and Live, Conway Hall, London 1993 There are some things that are right and there are some things that are wrong, Oirschott Kunst, Eindhoven, NL 1992 Artists against CLAUSE 28, The Diorama, London 1990 Beautifully Now, Wilson Hale Gallery, London 1989 Mad is Sane, Wilson Hale Gallery, London 1989 Domestic Bliss, Wilson Hale Gallery, London 1988 Aspects of Ryan, Wilson Hale Gallery, London 1988 Religious Love, Wilson Hale Gallery, London 1984 Group Show, The Peacock, Nottingham

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Sims Reed Gallery The Economist Building 30 Bury Street London SW1Y 6AU T +44 (0)20 7930 5111 F +44 (0)20 7930 1555 E gallery@simsreed.com www.gallery.simsreed.com