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The Landing is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Los Angeles artist Jonathan Ryan. The exhibition will be on view September 7th through October 26th, with an opening reception on Saturday, September 7th, from 6 to 9pm. Building on his 2018 two-person show at the Landing, this will be Ryan’s debut Los Angeles solo exhibition.

Jonathan Ryan paints fictitious spaces—those that are physical, optical, cerebral and psychological. In this exhibition of new work, Ryan continues his painterly investigation of landscape and architecture by combining perspectival depth with textured surfaces. The work’s seemingly straightforward trompe l’oeil effects are complicated by layers of sand and gravel, disorienting the painting’s depicted sense of scale, as well as the viewer’s. Equally informed by such disparate traditions as prehistoric architecture, Art Deco, op art and land art, Ryan’s works find commonalities across references discovered through the material process of painting.

Ryan begins each work with a simple geometric form which, over the process of painting, becomes more complex. As three-dimensional shadowing, texture, scale and color are introduced, the forms become increasingly specific and refined. References begin to appear, filtered through Ryan’s own interests and experiences, fleshing the paintings out of their Euclidean origins. His forms begin to take on the appearance of Pre-Colombian architecture, the geometric abstractions of Josef and Anni Albers, or early video games. Through the process of painting, Ryan taps his subconscious and, subsequently, interwoven references reveal themselves. Ultimately, Ryan’s work is closer to Sol Lewitt’s idea of conceptual art than it is to perceptual art; rather than being pre-conceived, the paintings are always becoming, constantly in the process of forming, observing, and adjusting.

Tactility is central to the experience of these works. Sand, gravel and small rocks are affixed to Ryan’s surfaces and incorporated into sections of sharp geometry. Some paintings include raked sand rows, while others include rows of raised rock. The earthy colors of the natural materials used—clays and tans, sands, browns, putties—are sharply contrasted with sections of bright, almost electric color: highlights in hot pink, bright mint, deep purple or dazzling lavender, or shapes of vibrant turquoise that seem to be pools. The natural earthy palette of ageless landscapes—whether Monte Albán, Jericho, or Zion National Park—are here woven together with colors of the screen: shades that reference the known, while elevating and digitizing it.

The relationship between architecture, landscape, and the viewer’s perspective has long been a driving factor in Ryan’s work. As a graduate student, Ryan modified his motorcycle to carry an easel and canvases into the Pennsylvanian countryside for plein air work. Drawing and painting sunlit buildings and landscapes in situ established a tradition of using light and shadow in his abstract forms. But it was not the subjects in front of his easel which truly captured his attention, it was fleeting moments he witnessed – whether moving through the landscape on his bike or being kicked out of a construction site – that captivated him. Ryan would return to this studio to draw or paint these scenarios by memory– a quarry glimpsed through the trees, a stepped pyramid-shaped landfill observed at an angle and drenched in sun. In rendering them, Ryan allowed his impression of the moment to form his version of the scene, rather than an obligation to render it realistically. This shift towards working with memory introduced the fantastical into his paintings and began an exploration into the idea of what constitutes faithful representation. Literal landscape began to merge with the mythic, the felt, the remembered and the glimpsed. What emerged was a compelling, luminous impression of phenomena experienced—or phenomena known—rather than phenomena seen.