STATE OF THE UNION
Ryan Cronin + Alexandra Baer w/ Music by Rhett Miller!
The Bowery Hotel
335 Bowery at 3rd St.
New York, NY
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
June 24, 2010 6:00 to 11:00PM
RSVP to millerandcronin@gmail.com
Represented by Miller&Cronin
(845) 332-6905
Images available upon request
Sponsored by Tuthilltown Spirits and Izze Sparkling Juice
ONE NIGHT ONLY! On June 24, from 6:00 to 11:00PM, artists Alexandra Baer and Ryan E. Cronin will be exhibiting their paintings at the Bowery Hotel, located at 335 Bowery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in a show titled STATE OF THE UNION. Musical guest Rhett Miller will DJ throughout the evening and perform live acoustic sets at 7:00 and 9:00PM. Tuthilltown Spirits’, Hudson Whiskey will be the beverage of choice, with a featured cocktail and free pour from 6:00-7:00PM.
From the simple to the sublime, Ryan E. Cronin and Alexandra Baer’s work conspires to deliver an event of exquisite contrasts. This is a high energy evening of art and entertainment not to be missed!!
Ryan E. Cronin takes his inspiration from everyday objects, rendering the familiar in a grand scale and context that offers viewers candid new perspectives. Primary colors collide with primal iconography in his slyly cropped, naive-pop visions. Cronin likens his process to that of painting flash photos. His 4 foot square canvases are mental snapshots- bright split seconds of life captured by his brush and enigmatic sense of humor. His paintings and installations are exhibited and collected widely throughout the country.
Baer uses collage, ink, metal, gold leaf and encaustic to achieve complex and captivating surfaces. Her work is in one sense politically motivated and, whether revealing images of soldiers or a woman behind a burqa, it exposes a side of current events that puts the viewer front and center with no room to move or avoid the subject matter. The subjects are represented how they themselves are caught and exposed. The same holds true for her work with the human figure. Baer is drawn to people’s faces and to the narrative that accompanies the figure. Each composition tells a story of life, the big picture. Though Baer’s subject matter is rooted in contemporary life, her approach is deeply anchored inclassical technique and composition which allows one to view her pieces as superficially or as deeply as one desires and still come away with a sense of beauty, history and the feeling that something important is going on. Baer has exhibited her work widely in Atlanta, DC and New York.
The title, State of the Union, references the stylistic differences between these two painters, challenging the viewer to discover the deep commonalities in their work. Cronin’s bold paintings and Baer’s intricately rendered work find compliment in one another in their depiction of specific, recognizable moments in contemporary life.