Ryan Trecartin
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Ryan Trecartin (b.1981, Webster, Texas) is a film maker and artist based in Los Angeles, California.
He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA in 2004.
Trecartin’s work has been exhibited at The Moore Space in Miami and The Getty Center in Los Angeles. He participated in the Whitney Biennale at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the “USA Today”exhibition at The Royal Academy in London. His work is featured in the Saatchi Gallery collection. He is represented by Elizabeth Dee Gallery in New York.
Trecartin is known for his unorthodox approach to his practice, which combines collaborative methodologies with crafty aesthetics. His films, such as A Family Finds Entertainment [1], adopt a wide range of cultural references to address issues of youth culture and sexual identity. His work has been compared to cult film director John Waters.
Structuring his art practice in the same way as he approaches film making, the realisation of Ryan Trecartin’s sculptures and installations incorporates a cast of dozens. Conceiving each exhibition as an experiment in theatrical production, Trecartin poses loose plots as a basis for collaborative endeavour. He invites his friends to participate in the creative process, respond to his ideas and contribute their own input and artwork. Through this unusual way of working, Trecartin’s work presents a Gen Y zeitgeist of commodity anxiety, spiritual nihilism, and value of a chosen community.
Trecartin conceives his installations as a series of potentials rather than faits accomplis. Each piece relates to the next to forming a free-flow dialogue of strategies and ideas. His figurative sculptures act as ‘anchors’ within his shows, creating relationships and conversations with each other and providing recognisable ‘bridges’ between the viewer and the other pieces in the gallery. Posited between the familiar and the surreal, each sculpture conveys a character or ‘type’ especially cast for the scene. His motley crew of freaks and wierdos pose an exaggerated and humorous cross-section of society as it is.
