Ryan McLaughlin: Raisins
The biggest of Ryan McLaughlin’s abstract paintings up at Laurel Gitlen in the Lower East Side measures 25 ¾ inches wide by 35 ½ inches long so, properly wrapped, you could probably manage to transport it by bicycle. In that regard, the show as a whole is imbued with a humanizing scale and pace. Eight paintings are on view, the biggest noted, the smallest comes in at 10 by 8 inches, all are abstract or, perhaps more accurately, levitating at the edge of the representational. The palette is toned down, there are instances of color but as if sun-bleached, and a slight tobacco-stained hue hangs over it all. There is no pictorial depth: all the action is on the surface. These modest essayistic paintings invite and reward close viewing. From what I can gather, this New York show marks McLaughlin’s solo American debut.