Artist Interview: Ryan McGuffin

Episode 2: Reviving Ambitions
Back to the Future, Think Tank Gallery
March 11, 2011

Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Ryan McGuffin. I’m a painter. I studied art and got my Bachelors from California Institute of the Arts. I’ve been painting and making art since I could walk, as far back as I can remember.

Can you tell us about the exhibition, and how your work fits in?

The show Back to the Future is generally just a group show of painters who are invested in painting as a practice. It’s also a way to create a new dialogue amongst young, contemporary painters. Personally, I’m totally invested in painting. Most of the work I make that I end up showing ends up being painting. There’s not a general theme to the show. My work deals with subjects of nostalgia and the dishonesty and disillusions within the act of remembrance and moments of remembrance.

How did you get to where you are now in terms of your art practice?

I actually decided not to go to school, and my parents applied to school for me. I moved to Oakland, and they called me and told me they got me into Otis, which was the first school I went to. They got me quite a bit of funding, and they told me “It’s paid for. You have to go.” They sort of bribed me into moving back to L.A. It’s sort of a moment in which I almost abandoned art but got forced back into it, which I’m so grateful for. I ended up in the painting program there, but it wasn’t quite what I needed. It wasn’t really that progressive in my opinion. So I applied and went to Cal Arts where painting is pretty looked down on. I didn’t care. Fuck it. I told myself I’m going to be a painter. It’s what I love, and I’ve been doing it ever since.

What are your sources of inspiration?

I pool a lot from my own photographs of my past and reflect on them. I distort them in a way in which they become ambiguous, and the narrative is stripped from them. They become more about this feeling that the viewer can project their own meaning onto. The most recent painting I did is of Santa Clause shoot-gunning a beer, and Santa Clause is totally out of focus, and the beer is in focus. I make the images I want to paint: I decide what I want to paint; I stage the photo; Take the photo; Paint it. Opposed to dealing with a moment in time, I was dealing with the idea of a moment in time with that photo. The other painting is this distorted image of a past moment. I pool a lot from personal experience, but I also do series of works that deal with found photos that sort of have this feeling that I’m interested in and the moment that I’m looking for.

What advice could you give to other young artists?

Say “fuck it” everyday, honestly. If there’s something that’s keeping you from doing what you want to do, stop doing that and figure out a way to make it work without that thing, and do what you want to do. Don’t stop. Make something everyday.

Episode 2: Reviving Ambitions

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Back to the Future, Think Tank Gallery
March 11, 2011

The second episode, Reviving Ambitions, documents the group exhibition Back to the Future held at Think Tank Gallery. The exhibition featured paintings by a varied selection of artists from across the greater Los Angeles area: Theodora Allen, Beatrice Poon, Abel Gutierrez, John Kilduff, Antone Könst, Ryan McGuffin, and Tomas Mickiewicz Seidita. It aimed to present painting as a viable, critical medium who’s constant struggle with the notion of “painting is dead” still pertains to the contemporary art world more so than ever before, yet it, nevertheless, lives on. The show sought to create a cohesive forum for a new dialogue between emerging contemporary painters.

A few months ago, curators Seidita and McGuffin, who recently graduated from Cal Arts, decided they wanted to put on a studio exhibition devoted entirely to painting’s constant struggle as a medium in a post-medium epoch. Similar in their attempt to revitalize the medium, both practicing artists had moments of falling out and later resumption within their own art practice: Seidita took a long break from painting while enrolled at Cal Arts and McGuffin nearly stopped making art altogether but was fortunately impelled to attend Otis by his generous parents. Likewise, Reviving Ambitions, embodies the perpetual struggle of self-perserverance within all art practices especially pivotal following graduation. Furthermore, Seidita and McGuffin serve as exemplars of those pioneer artists who create opportunities for themselves using that which is at their disposal.

The episode features interviews with John Kilduff, Ryan McGuffin, and Tomas Mickiewicz Seidita.

John Kilduff: Originally Let’s Paint TV began as a Los Angeles cable access tv show in 2001. Where Kilduff hosted and produced hundreds of shows. In 2006, Kilduff began to upload these videos to youtube where Kilduff became an internet celebrity. Soon, Kilduff performed live on Tyra, VH1′s Big in 06′, and America’s Got Talent Season #2. Clips ofw Let’s Paint TV have appeared on multiple tv programs as well. Kilduff now does his show daily M-F on the internet and performs live at various venues around the world. Kilduff received his MFA in Painting at UCLA in 2008.

www.letspainttv.com

Ryan McGuffin is a Los Angeles based artist, whose work attempts to investigate the dishonesty of the image. Ryan uses a wide variety of distortions in his imagery as a tool in blurring the narrative to create a sense of removal from the image. Interested in the lack of truth he sees in nostalgia, he chooses painting as a medium to remove even further the image from the idea of reflection on photography, or more specifically the photograph. Ryan’s curatorial work displays a serious investment in addressing the problems associated with the painting and the painter in the contemporary art world. Ryan received his BFA from California Institute of the arts in 2010.

www.ryanmcguffin.com

Tomas Mickiewicz Seidita is a Los Angeles based artist whose work seeks to negotiate the fundamental nature of that which defines “the American,” often resulting in an experience as politically charged as is the cultural landscape of 21st century America. Regularly utilizing appropriation as a means by which to investigate this essential quality, or essential qualities, his work has engaged a variety of sources, from American history, cinema, and of course news media. Political art often attempts, in the general tradition of agit-prop, to offer some kind of solution—presenting an answer as opposed to asking a question. In essence, the result is a complex issue rendered down to that which is readily digestible, a product that is simple rather than intelligible, obvious rather than accessible; something that is at its core easy. Tomas’ work attempts to subvert this standard, to place the responsibility of generating a concrete meaning completely in the hands of the audience, to let them answer those questions of their own accord and to face a complex political issue in a moderately complex way. Tomas received a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2010.

www.tomasseidita.com

Think Tank Gallery is a studio building in downtown Los Angeles. Back to the Future was the first exhibition to be held there.