FFDG is pleased to present San Francisco-based artist Ryan De La Hoz (who has been featured by Juxtapoz in both our print and online editions) in his first solo show with the gallery entitled “Impassible Terrain” including cut paper works, textiles, puzzles, drawings, works on canvas, and a watercolor painting on wood. An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, May 29 (6-9pm).
FFDG is pleased to present San Francisco-based artist Ryan De La Hoz (who has been featured by Juxtapoz in both our print and online editions) in his first solo show with the gallery entitled “Impassible Terrain” including cut paper works, textiles, puzzles, drawings, works on canvas, and a watercolor painting on wood. An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, May 29 (6-9pm).
Through a conflation of past and present, Ryan De La Hoz utilizes periodic icons of history to visually and metaphorically excavate emotions such as apathy, fear, hope, joy, and misery. Employing a broad variety of media and objects, he analyzes our current era using ancient signifiers. Objects of antiquity reoccur in his work and take the form of hand cut paper compositions with vases and bold graphic imagery relying on Greek sculpture as a central figure. Due to his belief that collective experience ties humans together throughout history, he is able to distill broad and epic ideas through simple objects like patches and puzzles.
Highly simplistic in their aesthetic execution, the central objects and figures in De La Hoz’s works are often destroyed or teeter on the edge of ruin, evoking a sense of dissent, rather than as precious art objects. As a maker in our currently over-saturated technological environment, hand cut paper goes against the historically-weighted exquisite work of art. Highlighting this tension, he guides us through an “Impassable Terrain” through depictions of dense foliage that are both welcoming and foreboding. This overgrowth reminds us of civilizations that have crumbled under their quest for power revealing that the never-ending cycle of order always ends in chaos, revolution, and enlightenment. By conflating this time into a single image, he allows us to reflect on our current condition through our historical experiences.
