SAN FRANCISCO — Highlight: Kathleen Ryan, at present on view on the Institute of Modern Artwork San Francisco’s new downtown location, is a small present that packs an enormous visible punch. Simply seen to passersby outdoors, Ryan’s giant, blingy sculptures of rotting fruit are each semaphores and sirens, warning of our cultural destroy whereas beckoning us to return nearer. The items, which embody jewel-encrusted big lemons sprouting semiprecious mildew, together with salvaged automobile components as cocktail garnish, are uncomfortably likable. They’re fairly, acquainted, enjoyable — and fecund with decay.
Ryan’s artworks are a part of the western nonetheless life custom of inserting darkish memento mori inside a piece’s pretty visible bounty, however hers are very a lot in the important thing of California. Think about Rachel Ruysch, a Dutch Golden Age flower painter (who headlines a Toledo Museum of Artwork present this spring), however in Ryan’s case born and educated in modern-day SoCal, particularly Santa Monica and Los Angeles. Pop Artwork meets Outdated Grasp, as if Claes Oldenberg instantly discovered his everlasting soul.
Set up view of Highlight: Kathleen Ryan at ICA San Francisco. Pictured: “Screwdriver” (2023), onyx, citrine, rhodonite, garnet, agate, tektite, lava rock, turquoise, aquamarine, serpentine, magnesite, amazonite, black tourmaline, jasper, prehnite, ruby in zoisite, marble, amber, labradorite, smoky quartz, quartz, acrylic, metal pins on coated polystyrene, aluminum umbrella, 68ʼ AMC Javelin trunk, 77 x 107 x 88 inches (195.58 x 271.78 x 223.52 cm); Assortment of the Museum of Modern Artwork, Los Angeles
The result’s a seashore umbrella spearing an automotive cocktail wedge, a shimmering lemon and glistening cherry, a way of solar and sand and outsized pleasures. There’s Hollywood glitz too: semi-precious stones and crystals and coloured beads, a glittery floor delight that additionally spells nature’s inevitable decay. It’s a poignant reminder of what’s occurring proper now in Southern California, as multimillion greenback houses go up in sudden flames.
Ryan’s work can be an indictment. Removed from being repelled by the effluvia of decay throughout their sparkly floor, a lot much less any quasi-Christian pang of life’s restricted timeframe, I discover myself entranced by their beguiling shine. It’s a quandary akin to American life itself. We would detest capitalism and its damaging urges, however someplace there’s the disturbing, insistent hum that, properly, possibly diamonds actually are a lady’s greatest good friend. Or at very least a pleasant distraction.
Highlight: Kathleen Ryan is a present that invitations interplay with the town outdoors, a spot battling its personal model of California cool meets corrosion. ICA SF’s transfer in October final yr from the Dogpatch neighborhood on the town’s far east aspect to the guts of downtown is a part of revitalizing a once-vibrant middle of artwork and exercise. A non-collecting museum devoted to connecting the broader neighborhood with up to date artwork, ICA SF’s presence downtown goes a good distance towards make artwork related for everybody. It’s all the time free, for one factor, and along with artworks, it provides coloring e-book pages — one picturing Ryan’s “Screwdriver” is at present obtainable freed from cost — in addition to curated books to browse, e-book lists coordinated with the San Francisco Public Library, and a teen program that allows younger individuals to have interaction with present exhibits. I ponder what they make of Ryan’s artwork? My guess is that they get it simply, as a result of they stay it day-after-day in a spot the place each magnificence and entropy are throughout them.
Set up view of Highlight: Kathleen Ryan at ICA San Francisco. Left: “Bad Lemon (Celestial)” (2023); proper: “Dangerous Lemon (Desert) (2023), citrine, jasper, agate, smoky quartz, quartz, carnelian, calcite, labradorite, amber, sunstone, garnet, unakite, purple aventurine, tiger’s eye, tourmaline, hessonite garnet, chrysoprase, lodolite, lepidolite, serpentine, shell, freshwater pearl, glass, metal pins on coated polystyrene,16.5 x 17 x 14 inches (41.91 x 43.18 x 35.56 cm); Non-public Assortment
Kathleen Ryan, “Bad Lemon (Celestial)” (2023), element 
Kathleen Ryan, “Bad Lemon (Celestial)” (2023), shut up
Kathleen Ryan, “Bad Lemon (Desert)” (2023), element 
Kathleen Ryan, “Screwdriver” (2023), element
Highlight: Kathleen Ryan continues on the Institute of Modern Artwork San Francisco (35 Montgomery Road, San Francisco, California) by March 16. The exhibition was curated by Ali Gass, govt director and chief curator, ICA SF.
