The Gallery 4 presents "Soldiers as Travelers" + Other Works by Ryan Woodring

The Gallery 4 presents "Soldiers as Travelers" + Other Works by Ryan Woodring

"Soldiers as Travelers" opens Saturday, August 6th, 2011 and runs through Saturday, August 27th, 2011 at The Gallery 4 (206 S. Highland Ave., Shadyside, 412-363-5050).

The opening reception will take place Saturday, August 13th, 2011 from 7-11PM and will be open to the general public with complimentary refreshments and hors d'oeuvres provided by The Gallery 4. The Gallery 4 is open Tuesday through Saturday 1-8PM .

Ryan Woodring, born and raised in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, graduated in 2010 from Carnegie Mellon University where he studied Fine Arts and French. Since graduating, he has worked as a freelance animator for such projects as Doug Cooper’s Pinburgh and as a mural artist and painter. He was nominated for Pittsburgh Center for the Art’s Emerging Artist of the Year 2012 and won Best Emerging Artist at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in June of 2011. Woodring was the first place winner of The Gallery 4's salon-style art competition, Release. Soldiers as Traverlers is Woodring’s first solo show and he is proud to present two developing series: Soldiers as Travelers and Drying: Tsunami Youtube Monoprints.

Artist's Statement:
"Soldiers as Travelers, a series of mixed media paintings on paper, linen, and wood focuses on the relationship between outfitted men and the unidentifiable landscapes to which they submit their final moments. I have chosen to plant their ominous portraits amongst nature's vast displays of anonymity. In separating the soldier from his mission, his battle is no longer waged against other human beings, but the human condition of uncertainty and mortality.

A soldier’s mission ties him or her to a certain land but also isolates him from it by making it a place in which distances are measured in relation to a human enemy. The soldier rarely fights in his backyard, is seldom surrounded by the people that make up his normal life, and yet often finds himself in someone else’s fields passing someone else’s grazing sheep or sleeping pets.

Having no war experience and no political message to convey, this series, while paying homage to the precious lives that are lost during a conflict, is more focused on the poetics of a human on a defined mission. The certainty of this mission is placed in contrast with those things that are unconquerable: not a human enemy but time, a fading memory and a magical, uncolonized sky. "

Visit Ryan Woodring's personal website to see more examples of his work including his animations: www.ryanwoodring.com.

Press Release

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• copyright © 2011, the gallery 4

• 206 s. highland ave
  pittsburgh, pa 15206
  map & directions

• phone:
  877.yinz.art
  412.363.5050

• hours:
  tues - sat
  1pm - 7pm

...

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