Show Statement

As a child in rural Oklahoma, life consisted of very little in the form of cultural stimulus. Outside of the hallways of high-school, church and music offered opposite paths towards a cultural identity. Re-defining oneself took invention and appropriation. This resulting identity, and the intersection of religious repentance and youth rebellion, has become a central tenant in Ryan’s work.

A kind of anthropology of 1990s rural youth and drug culture has emerged, composed of the most basic, diluted aspects of the 60s and 70s, along with an innocent understanding of suburban “fringe” cultures. Being pre-internet, the malls, bookstores, and head shops of nearby suburbs became the only way to mine for information. This research produced an array of visual signifiers, which themselves defined the artist’s own teenage angst and created a steadily evolving material identity.

For this exhibition, Ryan continues his self reflective archaeological vision quest through video, digital prints, and sculptures of relics and artifacts of his “sacred” juvenilia. With the current economic and political state looking progressively bleak, sorting through his naive past helps to understand and make sense of what may come to be.

CV

RYAN LAUDERDALE

B. 1979 STILLWATER, OK
LIVES AND WORKS IN AUSTIN, TX

Education
2005 BFA Studio Art – BA Art History, University of Texas at Austin

Selected Exhibitions
2009 No Lone Zone, Creative Research Lab, Austin, TX
Ryan Lauderdale: Project Space, Okay Mountain, Austin, TX
We Like the Good, Live with Animals, Brooklyn, NY
DIY: Double Wide, Texas Biennial, Women & Their Work, Austin, TX
2008 Texpose, Paragraph Gallery, Kansas City, MO
Harvest, MASS Gallery, Austin, TX
Greetings from Berrydale, Okay Mountain, Austin, TX (with Michael Berryhill)
The Nature Show, LMNL, Austin, TX
2007 Come on Feel the Whatever, Concordia University, Austin, TX
Surprise Me, Gallery Lombardi, Austin, TX
Endwise, Current Space, Baltimore, MD
Blue Screen: Wow man, Take me away, Fuse Box, Austin, TX
Digital Showcase 41, AMODA, Austin, TX
Never Meaning No Harm, MadArt, St. Louis, MO (with Eric Gibbons)
2005 Terra Cognita Cinematexas 10, AMLI, Austin, TX
Senior Studio Exhibition (juried), Creative Research Laboratory, Austin, TX
BIZ SKOOL, Video installation – McCombs Business School, University of Texas, Austin, TX

Bibliography
Faires, Robert. The Austin Chronicle. 10 April, 2009.
Duncan, Michael. Texas Biennial 2009 (Exh. Catalog). 2009.
Schulman, Blair. …might be good (issue #112). 12 December, 2008.
Geha, Katie. …might be good (issue #94). 7 March, 2008.
Douberley, Amanda. The Austin Chronicle. 22 February, 2008.
Scherer, Kate. Cinematexas 10 (Exh. Catalog). 2005.