The Graphic Mind of Ryan McGinness by Katherine Clarke, The Wall Street Journal May 26, 2011
“I believe the search is more important than the Holy Grail,” says New York–based artist Ryan McGinness, whose vivid paintings and works on paper are collected by major institutions, like the Museum of Modern Art and the Cincinnati Art Museum. McGinness is best known for his hypercolor silkscreen canvases that break down symbols taken from urban signage and advertising into their most graphic forms. For his “Women” series, the 39-year-old has turned his focus to the most classic of painterly subjects: the female figure.
The series is a departure for McGinness, who started out in Virginia Beach, Virginia, drawing logos on T-shirts for his skateboarder friends. While his work is now collected by the industry’s boldface names, including Charles Saatchi and Jeffrey Deitch (his former dealer), he has never lost his renegade spirit. In 2003, he put on a show titled “Sponsorship” at his friend Shepard Fairey’s gallery, where he asked corporate sponsors to give money in exchange for seeing their logo hung on the wall.