Lowell Ryan Projects
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Andy Mister, Snowing Sun

Andy Mister
Snowing Sun
July 9 - August 13, 2022

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 9th 5-7pm

Installation view: Andy Mister, Snowing Sun

If it was only the dark voice of the sea   
That rose, or even colored by many waves;   
If it was only the outer voice of sky
And cloud, of the sunken coral water-walled,   
However clear, it would have been deep air,   
The heaving speech of air, a summer sound   
Repeated in a summer without end

- from "The Idea of Order at Key West" by Wallace Stevens 


Lowell Ryan Projects is pleased to present Snowing Sun, a solo exhibition by Beacon, NY-based artist Andy Mister. This will be Andy Mister’s first exhibition with the gallery and in Los Angeles. Consisting of twelve works on paper mounted on wooden panel, straddling the line between painting and drawing or as the artist clarifies “drawn paintings,” the works in Snowing Sun explore the concept of a visual depiction of a landscape as if through the lens of a poet.

In the main downstairs gallery, seven large-scale works depicting imposing snow-covered mountains are set against images of waves both retreating and crashing. Executed in a monochromatic palette of carbon pencil and charcoal, the meticulously rendered imagery is set against swaths of cool purple and cerulean acrylic washes. In the upper gallery space, an ombré palette of pinks, soft oranges, and lavender enliven blooming flowers mounted on oval-shaped panels. The title “Snowing Sun” is a reference to a favorite lyric from the Italian rock band, Bellini, “We crossed the ocean to see the snowing sun,” referring to the visual imagery in the exhibition, but also his identification with the band. As Mister notes, the “band is led by an Italian couple who are Buddhists, but they make this loud kind of jarring music. I always related to that on a personal level.”

Andy Mister’s imagery is taken from various sources, in this exhibition horticultural magazines and friends’ photographs from a trip are utilized, however the artist’s interest lies not in the specific origin of an image, but the process of its refraction through replication. Color schemes are reminiscent of the tones of paper one would find at a Xerox shop in the pre-internet area, but while Mister’s process of reproduction is laborious in nature, his skill is evident in the illusion of effortlessness and the surrealist quality of the final works. Mister, who holds degrees in English Literature, Philosophy, and Creative Writing, approaches his work through the mind of a linguist. His artistic method of reproducing imagery becomes a tool to describe an image. He is not attempting to create a visual replication of a sublime experience, but instead create an interpretation of that encounter.

Andy Mister was born in 1979, New Orleans, LA and lives and works in Beacon, NY. Mister’s works investigate the boundary between mechanical and manual reproduction. Working with images appropriated from contemporary and vintage photographs, he questions how meaning is created or lost through the act of ‘copying.’ Mister received a B.A. in English Literature and Philosophy from Loyola University New Orleans, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana. He has exhibited at galleries and institutions including Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Rebecca Camacho Presents, San Francisco, CA; Second Street, Charlottesville, VA; Commune Gallery, Tokyo, Japan; Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY; Turn Gallery, New York, NY; Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, NY; and Dieu Donné, Brooklyn, NY. Mister has published two books: Heroes & Villains (Cultural Society, 2015), a book of drawings, and Liner Notes (Station Hill, 2013), a lyric essay. He has been awarded residencies from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Andy Mister’s works have been reviewed and discussed in Hyperallergic, artReal, Frontrunner Magazine, Quiet Lunch, Artnet, BOMB Magazine, Whitewall.art, and COOL HUNTING, amongst others.

images by Charles White at JWPictures.com