Ryan Callis: Are You Ready to Testify January 10, 2009

Taylor De Cordoba is pleased to present Are You Ready to Testify, a new series of paintings by Southern California-based artist Ryan Callis. The exhibition will run from January 10 through February 14, 2009. The gallery will host an opening reception for the artist on Saturday January 10 from 6pm-8pm.

The exhibition consists of paintings that operate conversationally, as phrases and sentences in a larger dialogue. To create the paintings' architectural structures, Callis uses a system that codes phrases and words into geometric forms without visually making use of text. He translates the numeric value of the letters into inches and then visually measures forms to create the base composition for each painting. While the completed paintings do not directly reflect the original texts, every gesture, shape and concept organically flows from this unique coded system. A palette of vibrant (nearly acidic) blues, greens, yellows and pinks creates elegant passages of paint flows and color gradations.

The exhibition’s title is a reference to the artist’s Christian faith, where the term "testify" or "to give your testimony to” means the story of how one became a Christian or to a specific event in a Christian's life deemed particularly worth sharing.The conception for this series of work was influenced largely by Nam June Paik’s Fluxus film, Zen For Film (1962-1964), the 1996 Dischord Records release of the self proclaimed “gospel yeah, yeah” sound of the MakeUp’s, Live at Cold Rice, and David Hockney’s book That’s the Way I See Things.

This is the artist's second solo show at Taylor De Cordoba. He work has been featured in Artweek, New American Paintings, the OC Weekly. Ryan Callis was recently included in Christopher Knight’s article for the Los Angeles Times, “45 Under 45.” He received his MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 2007.

For additional information and images, please contact Heather Taylor at 310-559-9156 or [email protected]. Taylor De Cordoba is located at 2660 South La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles, CA. The gallery is open from Tuesday – Saturday, 11AM – 6PM.

Official Website: http://taylordecordoba.com/main.php