CHARLES BANK GALLERY presents
Ryan Russo: Out of Context / Mason Saltarrelli: Port
Dates: Tuesday March 5th – Sunday April 7th
Opening Reception: Tuesday March 5th, 6 – 9pm
Location: CHARLES BANK GALLERY, 196 Bowery, NYC
http://www.charlesbankgallery.com/
CHARLES BANK GALLERY introduces two new artists to its program — Ryan Russo and Mason Saltarrelli — with concurrent solo exhibitions by each artist. Opening receptions for each exhibition will be held on the main level of the gallery on Tuesday, March 5th, 6 – 9 pm.
Ryan Russo, Conspicuous Consumption, 2013, collage and acrylic on canvas, 64 x 72 in
Ryan Russo’s work first debuted at Charles Bank Gallery last summer’s group exhibition Inglorious Materials. Russo’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, Out of Context, has the artist playing with the word “media” in both literal and figurative ways. In this newest body of work, Russo’s materials include fragments of news, advertising and other internet-accessible information. He uses both material and digital collage techniques to make works that re-process the massive amounts of information disseminated and ingested within contemporary society. In these new contexts, the media becomes raw, malleable material to build new visual structures within the framework of abstract painting.
Ryan Russo has a BFA from Boston University and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice Italy. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Mason Saltarrelli, Untitled, 2012, oil, gesso and spray paint on canvas, 92 x 61 in
Mason Saltarrelli is a painter who allows his intuition and an ongoing dialogue with nature to guide the process of his work. His first solo exhibition with the gallery, Port, is a selection of both works on paper and on canvas. All of Satarrelli’s works on paper begin with a tinting process that spoils any pristine, unblemished qualities to the paper. His canvases are often left outdoors and exposed to the elements in places he considers special in Montauk, NY, where he lives part of the time. In this way, Saltarrelli allows the earth to play a role in his decisions of where marks will go and with what colors he uses. The more weathered the surfaces are before he begins painting, the better, as this allows Saltarrelli to feel he is in conversation with the work rather than its master.
Raised in New Orleans, Mason Saltarrelli is currently based in New York. His work has been exhibited at Riviera Gallery, the Brucennial, Old Stone House, The Invisible Dog, the juried Small Works Show at NYU’s 80 Washington Square East Gallery, Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center, Interstate Projects, Randall Scott Projects and Coup d’oeil Art Consortium.
Charles Bank Gallery | 196 Bowery | New York NY | 10012
