Ryan McNamara Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
In the moment I know I can’t do it: My body isn’t built for this. I panic. My gaze leaves Reid, who has been generous and slow while teaching me Merce Cunningham back exercises; clearly this is not his fault. It’s mine. People are watching. Of course they are—this is a performance. I am performing. Does this mean that I am “performing” my anxiety? Is “performed” anxiety real anxiety? Anxiety is simply that state called thinking, or so I tell myself. It doesn’t make me feel better.
This moment occurred in mid-June, a few weeks into my current project, “Make Ryan A Dancer,” at MoMA PS1. For the piece, I have invited all styles of dancers and choreographers to come to the museum to teach me their craft. On October 16, in a work titled “The Finale,” I will perform a museum-wide choreographic score that would have been impossible for me to do on the first day. The arc of this project makes explicit an impulse running through my work: I’m fascinated by the gap between what I want my body to do and what it ends up doing, as well as by the frisson of the “real” promised by failure. This “reality” is very clear in dance (Martha Graham: “Either the foot is pointed, or it’s not—no amount of dreaming will point it for you”), but the rift between intention and fact is also evident in social behaviors (wanting to be charming at a party), through the creation of artwork (wanting a video to evoke a certain mood), and through words (wanting to write something “total” that puts down on paper everything going on in your head).
“Make Ryan a Dancer” both evinces and complicates my ongoing artistic relationship to failure. There’s a friction between myself as an artist who created this piece and myself as a person trying to become a dancer—a discrepancy between making a piece about failure and the possibility of failure within it. What are the terms of “failure” in a piece about failure? If I “fail” at becoming a dancer or my body “fails” to bend or move in a particular way (inevitable) does the piece also fail? Or is this “failure” what marks it as a success?
Even worse, what if I become a really good dancer?
In the moment I know I can’t do it: My body isn’t built for this. I panic. My gaze leaves Reid, who has been generous and slow while teaching me Merce Cunningham back exercises; clearly this is not his fault. It’s mine. People are watching. Of course they are—this is a performance. I am performing. Does this mean that I am “performing” my anxiety? Is “performed” anxiety real anxiety? Anxiety is simply that state called thinking, or so I tell myself. It doesn’t make me feel better.
This moment occurred in mid-June, a few weeks into my current project, “Make Ryan A Dancer,” at MoMA PS1. For the piece, I have invited all styles of dancers and choreographers to come to the museum to teach me their craft. On October 16, in a work titled “The Finale,” I will perform a museum-wide choreographic score that would have been impossible for me to do on the first day. The arc of this project makes explicit an impulse running through my work: I’m fascinated by the gap between what I want my body to do and what it ends up doing, as well as by the frisson of the “real” promised by failure. This “reality” is very clear in dance (Martha Graham: “Either the foot is pointed, or it’s not—no amount of dreaming will point it for you”), but the rift between intention and fact is also evident in social behaviors (wanting to be charming at a party), through the creation of artwork (wanting a video to evoke a certain mood), and through words (wanting to write something “total” that puts down on paper everything going on in your head).
“Make Ryan a Dancer” both evinces and complicates my ongoing artistic relationship to failure. There’s a friction between myself as an artist who created this piece and myself as a person trying to become a dancer—a discrepancy between making a piece about failure and the possibility of failure within it. What are the terms of “failure” in a piece about failure? If I “fail” at becoming a dancer or my body “fails” to bend or move in a particular way (inevitable) does the piece also fail? Or is this “failure” what marks it as a success?
Even worse, what if I become a really good dancer?
CV
Ryan McNamara
PERFORMANCES AND EXHIBITIONS
2010
Robert Melee’s Talent Show, The Kitchen, New York, NY
Liste Performance Project, Liste Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland
Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York NY
And Introducing Ryan McNamara, Elizabeth Dee, New York, NY
This Is My Condition, Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon, Portugal
Whitney Biennial Performance Program, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Fronts, Room for Storms, New York, NY
2009
The Sacred Band of Thebes aka In Memory of Robert Isabell aka Any Fag Could Do That, Performa09, X Initiative, New York, NY, 11/13/09
Ryan McNamara Presents: Klaus von Nichtssagend: The Musical, Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, NY
Stars!, Salon 94 Freemans, New York, NY
Splendid Isolation, 2nd Athens Biennale, Athens, Greece
Ryan McNamara Presents: Bernie, the Magic Lady, Art Production Fund Lab, New York, NY
Sam Kim’s Darling, PS122, New York, NY
2008
When Fear Becomes Form, Centre d’Art de Neufchatel, Switzerland
2007
Sam Kim’s dumb dumb bunny, The Kitchen, New York, NY
Here/Now, Ghost Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
Skirting the Line: Conceptual Drawing, New Center for Contemporary Art, Louisville, KY
2006
Blessed are the Merciful, Feigen Contemporary, New York, NY
Skirting the Line, The Galleries at Peeler, Depauw, IN
2005
Boost in the Shell, De Bond Exhibition Hall, Bruges, Belgium
Unspeakable, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
2004
Sussudio, Performance with Mary Kay Zeeb, Modified, Phoenix, AZ
Peekskill Project, Peekskill, NY
Elective Acts, Phoenix, AZ
Pretty World, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
100 Artists See Satan, Grand Central Art Center, Fullerton, CA
Sussudio, Performance with Mary Kay Zeeb, Texas Ballroom, Chicago, IL
Pulse of America, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2010
Als, Hilton, “Camera, Action,” The New Yorker, July 26
Smith, Roberta, “Take Me Out to the Big Show in Queens,” The New York Times, May 27
Saltz, Jerry, “Sincerity and Irony Hug It Out,” New York Magazine, June 1
Yablonsky, Linda, “Mini-skirts, Rubber Bodysuits, Orff Spice MoMa P.S. 1 Extravaganza,” Bloomberg News, May 27
Wolff, Rachel, “The New York Five: The People to See at PS1,” New York Magazine, May 24
Droitcour, Brian, “Party of Five,” Artforum, May 24
Pearson, Erica “Brooklyn artist to right his two left feet with P.S 1 Contemporary Art Center dance lessons,” New York Daily News, May 23
Hulme, Emily, “New York Greats,” amNew York, May 21-23
Greater New York at P.S 1 Contemporary Art Center, ARTINFO, May 19
Goldstein, Andrew. “P.S.1 Promises a Smaller, Saner Greater New York,” Artinfo.com, April 29
Valdez, Amanda, “Introducing Ryan McNamara,” Dossier Journal online, April 21
2009
Colman, David, “The Nifty 50: Ryan McNamara, Artist,” T, The New York Times Style Magazine, December
Shutterbug, “Toga Party,” Homo-Neurotic, November 13
Tachman, Kevin, “Ryan McNamara’s Any Fag Could Do That,” Backstage @, November 13
“Reviews,” Art Papers, October
Drake, Catherine, “Review: 2nd Athens Biennale,” Artforum, October
Yablonsky, Linda, “Art Basel Miami 2009: Back to Basquiat,” The Moment, The New York Times online, December 7
Tonchi, Stefano, “After Performa, the Show Goes On,” The Moment, The New York Times online, December 7
Walleston, Aimee,“Ryan McNamara Performs Vaudeville Tonight,” Art in America online, August 5
Gartenfeld, Alex, “The New New York Artist SCENE,” Interview, June
2007
Zottino, Marica, “Featured Project,” Who Killed Bambi online, September
2006
“The Power of Mercy,” Afterimage, Fall
Rappolt, Mark, “Freak or Unique?,” i-D, June-July
SITUATIONS
2010
What Do You See?, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
MoMA Board Meeting, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Whitney Houston Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
4’33”, The Starlight Lounge, Brooklyn, NY
2009
Move On Up: A Tribute to Klaus Biesenbach, The Raleigh Hotel, Miami, FL
Gay Pulp Caesar, New York, NY
Greater New York studio visit, Ryan McNamara studio, New York, NY
2008
Out of The Darkness, Into the Light, LGBT Center, New York, NY
Taco Bell Pandemonium, Christ Lutheran School, Phoenix, AZ
A Damn Fine Eulogy for a Damn Fine Grandma, Casa Franciscan Renewal Center, Phoenix, AZ
2007
Free Drinks at Strip Maul, Cruisin’ on 7th, Phoenix, AZ
Slippings: What Does My Face Look Like?, Barnes & Noble, Phoenix, AZ
Zombie Angels Knockin’ at Your Door, Phoenix, AZ
Riot Gear Eats a Burrito, Phoenix, AZ
2006
Skin Flap, Sears Portrait Studio, Phoenix, AZ
Happy Birthday, Love, Laurie Anderson, New York, NY/Phoenix, AZ
Christmas at the Top of Our Lungs, The Residence of Michael and Mary McNamara, Phoenix, AZ
2005
Burger King Champagne, Burger King, Chicago, IL
2004
Voice Mails from A.M. Holmes, New York, NY (2004-2007)
When Adult Babies Attack, New York/Phoenix, AZ
Ryan McNamara
PERFORMANCES AND EXHIBITIONS
2010
Robert Melee’s Talent Show, The Kitchen, New York, NY
Liste Performance Project, Liste Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland
Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York NY
And Introducing Ryan McNamara, Elizabeth Dee, New York, NY
This Is My Condition, Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon, Portugal
Whitney Biennial Performance Program, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Fronts, Room for Storms, New York, NY
2009
The Sacred Band of Thebes aka In Memory of Robert Isabell aka Any Fag Could Do That, Performa09, X Initiative, New York, NY, 11/13/09
Ryan McNamara Presents: Klaus von Nichtssagend: The Musical, Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, NY
Stars!, Salon 94 Freemans, New York, NY
Splendid Isolation, 2nd Athens Biennale, Athens, Greece
Ryan McNamara Presents: Bernie, the Magic Lady, Art Production Fund Lab, New York, NY
Sam Kim’s Darling, PS122, New York, NY
2008
When Fear Becomes Form, Centre d’Art de Neufchatel, Switzerland
2007
Sam Kim’s dumb dumb bunny, The Kitchen, New York, NY
Here/Now, Ghost Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
Skirting the Line: Conceptual Drawing, New Center for Contemporary Art, Louisville, KY
2006
Blessed are the Merciful, Feigen Contemporary, New York, NY
Skirting the Line, The Galleries at Peeler, Depauw, IN
2005
Boost in the Shell, De Bond Exhibition Hall, Bruges, Belgium
Unspeakable, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
2004
Sussudio, Performance with Mary Kay Zeeb, Modified, Phoenix, AZ
Peekskill Project, Peekskill, NY
Elective Acts, Phoenix, AZ
Pretty World, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
100 Artists See Satan, Grand Central Art Center, Fullerton, CA
Sussudio, Performance with Mary Kay Zeeb, Texas Ballroom, Chicago, IL
Pulse of America, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2010
Als, Hilton, “Camera, Action,” The New Yorker, July 26
Smith, Roberta, “Take Me Out to the Big Show in Queens,” The New York Times, May 27
Saltz, Jerry, “Sincerity and Irony Hug It Out,” New York Magazine, June 1
Yablonsky, Linda, “Mini-skirts, Rubber Bodysuits, Orff Spice MoMa P.S. 1 Extravaganza,” Bloomberg News, May 27
Wolff, Rachel, “The New York Five: The People to See at PS1,” New York Magazine, May 24
Droitcour, Brian, “Party of Five,” Artforum, May 24
Pearson, Erica “Brooklyn artist to right his two left feet with P.S 1 Contemporary Art Center dance lessons,” New York Daily News, May 23
Hulme, Emily, “New York Greats,” amNew York, May 21-23
Greater New York at P.S 1 Contemporary Art Center, ARTINFO, May 19
Goldstein, Andrew. “P.S.1 Promises a Smaller, Saner Greater New York,” Artinfo.com, April 29
Valdez, Amanda, “Introducing Ryan McNamara,” Dossier Journal online, April 21
2009
Colman, David, “The Nifty 50: Ryan McNamara, Artist,” T, The New York Times Style Magazine, December
Shutterbug, “Toga Party,” Homo-Neurotic, November 13
Tachman, Kevin, “Ryan McNamara’s Any Fag Could Do That,” Backstage @, November 13
“Reviews,” Art Papers, October
Drake, Catherine, “Review: 2nd Athens Biennale,” Artforum, October
Yablonsky, Linda, “Art Basel Miami 2009: Back to Basquiat,” The Moment, The New York Times online, December 7
Tonchi, Stefano, “After Performa, the Show Goes On,” The Moment, The New York Times online, December 7
Walleston, Aimee,“Ryan McNamara Performs Vaudeville Tonight,” Art in America online, August 5
Gartenfeld, Alex, “The New New York Artist SCENE,” Interview, June
2007
Zottino, Marica, “Featured Project,” Who Killed Bambi online, September
2006
“The Power of Mercy,” Afterimage, Fall
Rappolt, Mark, “Freak or Unique?,” i-D, June-July
SITUATIONS
2010
What Do You See?, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
MoMA Board Meeting, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
The Whitney Houston Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
4’33”, The Starlight Lounge, Brooklyn, NY
2009
Move On Up: A Tribute to Klaus Biesenbach, The Raleigh Hotel, Miami, FL
Gay Pulp Caesar, New York, NY
Greater New York studio visit, Ryan McNamara studio, New York, NY
2008
Out of The Darkness, Into the Light, LGBT Center, New York, NY
Taco Bell Pandemonium, Christ Lutheran School, Phoenix, AZ
A Damn Fine Eulogy for a Damn Fine Grandma, Casa Franciscan Renewal Center, Phoenix, AZ
2007
Free Drinks at Strip Maul, Cruisin’ on 7th, Phoenix, AZ
Slippings: What Does My Face Look Like?, Barnes & Noble, Phoenix, AZ
Zombie Angels Knockin’ at Your Door, Phoenix, AZ
Riot Gear Eats a Burrito, Phoenix, AZ
2006
Skin Flap, Sears Portrait Studio, Phoenix, AZ
Happy Birthday, Love, Laurie Anderson, New York, NY/Phoenix, AZ
Christmas at the Top of Our Lungs, The Residence of Michael and Mary McNamara, Phoenix, AZ
2005
Burger King Champagne, Burger King, Chicago, IL
2004
Voice Mails from A.M. Holmes, New York, NY (2004-2007)
When Adult Babies Attack, New York/Phoenix, AZ
“Sacred Band of Thebes aka In Memory of Robert Isabell aka Any Fag Could Do That,” 11/3/09, performance, Performa09, X Initiative, New York, NY
“Sacred Band of Thebes aka In Memory of Robert Isabell aka Any Fag Could Do That,” 2009, performance, Performa09, X Initiative, New York, NY
“I Thought It Was You,” 2008, video production still
“Make Ryan A Dancer,” 5/20-10/17/10, performance, MoMA PS1, New York, NY
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“The Star Parade,” 8/3/09, performance, Salon 94, New York
“Trains, Boats & Planes,” 2009, video production still
“Move On Up,” 12/3/09, performance, Miami, Fl
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“Ryan McNamara Presents: Bernie The Magic Lady,” 2009, performance/installation invitation, APF Lab, New York, NY
“PS1 Studio Visit,” 2009, performance, New York, NY
“The Whitney Houston Biennial,” 2/10, performance, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
“The Whitney Houston Biennial,” 2/10, performance, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
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“Ryan McNamara Presents: Klaus von Nichtssagend: The Musical,” 8/09,performance, Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“Team Retreat,” 2008,performance/installation, New York, NY
“Where Babies Should Be,” 2006, Sears photograph, dimensions variable
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“The Latest in Blood and Guts,” 2009, video production still