paul ryanstalking noah

29 AUGUST - 1 OCTOBER 2015

‘Halcyon’ Exeter Road Exeter NSW 2579www.galleryecosse.com.auinfo@galleryecosse.com.au

02 4883 44660403 936 624

open fri - sat 10am - 5pmsun 10am - 3pm

or by appointment

Paul Ryan’s Portraits of Actor Noah Taylor

Choosing Noah Taylor as his 2015 Archibald Prize subject, 12 times short-listed finalist Paul Ryan quickly found that “one image became almost forty” and that his single entry had quickly blossomed to become thirteen. Noah Taylor himself even admitted to being surprised. What’s more, Ryan’s exquisitely chaotic positioning of those thirteen images immediately reminded Taylor “of a ‘classic stalker’s bedroom’”.

Those Thirteen Noahs had each found their home - iconoclastically over-painted on op-shop discards. “With these works,” Ryan declares, “I am painting Noah as a fictional character in fictional films. There is Noah the mysterious figure in ‘Murders at the Lake’, Noah as a black American pimp in ‘Hawaiian Hustle,’ Noah in the Australian classic ‘Death on the Murray’, and Noah in ‘Outback Wanderer’”.

This is something that veteran academic, curator and art historian, Joanna Mendelssohn, instantly recognised in her perceptive survey of the entries in the 2015 Archibald. Thirteen Noahs “is based on different images, some distorted, each superimposed on discarded artworks – including a tapestry and ping-pong bats. Taylor has inserted himself in such a wide range of characters on film and television that it makes sense for him to appear as a part of the scenery with kitsch naked ladies, landscapes and a dog. It might not have been awarded the prize, but it is easily the most exciting work in the show.”

As a good lapsed-Catholic boy, Paul Ryan must almost certainly have read (and unconsciously imbibed) the following lines from Genesis 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” And multiply they did - for Ryan’s Thirroul studio was replenished to the point of overflowing.

Here for your delectation at Gallery Ecosse is a connoisseur’s distillation of just that overflow – yet none of these are the kind of scenes which might ever have washed-up on the cutting room floor of some imagined Noah Taylor movie. Instead, this is the overflow of an infinitely restless, inventive and irreverent artistic mind.

Ryan has worked overtime on what Anna Johnson terms Noah Taylor’s “pixyish, vulnerable, weathered, anti-heroic” face. The actor looks equally irreverently elegant on a ping-pong bat, as a most mature and hirsute baby Jesus and even when he appears centre-stage on top of an op-shop print of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper.

This current delineation of Noah Taylor as one of Ryan’s enduring artistic obsessions provides the viewer with an elegant sufficiency of palette-knife loaves and fishes for all to feast upon. Characteristically, Ryan wears both his scholarship and his undeniable skill ever so lightly in this splendid show. His signature irreverence mimics the myriad possible distortions of which an actor’s greasepaint is capable – and transfers them onto op-shop canvas, glass and plywood.

Here, at Gallery Ecosse, Paul Ryan has worked his revelatory magic on nearly all of our painterly notions of what, precisely, an actor’s face might actually be.

Joseph DavisThirroul, August 2015

ReferencesAnna Johnson, “Love Me to Death: 13 Noahs by Paul Ryan”, Artist Profile, July 16 2015 Joanna Mendelssohn, Nigel Milsom wins the Archibald, our ‘most fun’ festival of faces, The Conversation, July17, 2015Joseph Davis, “Paul Ryan: Portraits without heads, landscapes without memory”, Amagazine, August, 2012

Thirteen Noahs, 2015237 x 282 cm

Oil on mixed found and bought objects

Archibald Prize 2015 AGNSW

Install view

Contact:Andre de Borde

andre@galleryecosse.com.au

Gallery Ecosse at ‘Halcyon’Exeter Road Exeter NSW 2579

www.galleryecosse.com.auinfo@galleryecosse.com.au

02 4883 44660403 936 624

open fri - sat 10am - 5pmsun 10am - 3pm

or by appointment

Noah and parrot - The lake, 201546 x 76cm

Oil on found painting

Price (including GST): $4,600

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Mountain parrot, 201551 x 57cm

Oil on found object

Price (including GST): $2,000

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Blue mountains Noah, 2015 79 x 68cm

Oil on found framed painting

Price (including GST): $5,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Alpine Magpie, 201575 x 35cm

Oil on found framed print

Price (including GST): $3,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Alpine Magpie, 201575 x 35cm

Oil on found framed print (detail)

Paul RyanKookaburra and prey, 2015

72 x 61cmOil on linen

Price (including GST): $5,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Wuthering heights Noah, 201557 x 47cm Oil on found print

Price (including GST): $3,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subjectto change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days fromthe date of this correspondence

Disc Noah, 201544cm diametre

Oil on found object

Price (including GST): $2,800

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Dr Zhivago Noah, 2015 66 x 96cm

Oil on found framed painting

Price (including GST): $6,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Ping pong Noah I, 201527.5 x 16cm

Oil on ping pong bat

Price (including GST): $750

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Ping pong Noah II, 201525.5 x 15cm

Oil on ping pong bat

Price (including GST): $750

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Paul RyanAfter Glow, 2015

87 x 71cmOil on linen

Price (including GST): $6,000

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Drinks tray Noah, 201544.5 x 33cm

Oil on wooden tray

Price (including GST): $2,900

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Last supper Noah, 2015 35 x 77cm Oil on framed print

Price (including GST): $3,700

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subjectto change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days fromthe date of this correspondence

Birth of Noah, 201556 x 114cm Oil on found framed print

Price (including GST): $5,200

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subjectto change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days fromthe date of this correspondence

Snow drift Noah, 201566 x 95cm

Oil on found painting

Price (including GST): $6,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Alex, 2014 60 x 44cm

Oil on linen

Price (including GST): $4,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Convict with Magpies, 2015122 x 122cm

Oil on linen

Price (including GST): $12,000

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Jayden, 2014 91 x 61cm

Oil on linen

Price (including GST): $6,000

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Corey, 2014 91 x 61cm

Oil on linen

Price (including GST): $6,000

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Meadow dreaming Noah, 201554 x 44cm

Oil on found framed painting

Price (including GST): $3,000

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Noah, Belgium 40 x 50cm

Oil on found framed painting

Price (including GST): $3,000

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Tapestry Noah, 2015 45 x 32cm

Oil on found tapestry

Price (including GST): $2,300

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Rosella bouquet 1, 201580 x 34cm

Oil on found painting

Price (including GST): $4,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Rosella bouquet 2, 201580 x 34cm

Oil on found painting

Price (including GST): $4,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Ping pong Noah III, 201525.5 x 15cm

Oil on ping pong bat

Price (including GST): $750

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Ping pong Christmas, 201525.5 x 15cm

Oil on ping pong bat

Price (including GST): $750

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Ping pong Noah IV, 201525.5 x 15cm

Oil on ping pong bat

Price (including GST): $750

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Ping pong Noah V, 201525.5 x 15cm

Oil on ping pong bat

Price (including GST): $750

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Tequila Sunrise Noah, 201551 x 66cm

Oil on found framed painting

Price (including GST): $3,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Skinny Nick, 199478 x 55.5cm

Oil on board

Price (including GST): $5,500

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

Sick Nick, 199466.5 x 50cm

Oil on board

Price (including GST): $5,000

Prices are quoted in AustralianDollars ($AUD), and are subject

to change. The price quotedabove is valid for 30 days from

the date of this correspondence

‘Halcyon’ Exeter Road Exeter NSW 2579

www.galleryecosse.com.auinfo@galleryecosse.com.au

02 4883 44660403 936 624

open fri - sat 10am - 5pmsun 10am - 3pm

or by appointment