Russell Tyler: Strange Variants

Denny Gallery is pleased to announce Strange Variants, an exhibition of new paintings by Russell Tyler, running from February 28th to April 2nd, 2017. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

Russell Tyler’s recent work methodically explores distinct formal variations in his paintings, from gestural abstractions to spacey landscapes to dense floral compositions. He has been developing these styles alongside of the geometric abstractions he was originally known for. The exhibition will consist of seven paintings of the same size exemplifying his different approaches. The title of the exhibition, Strange Variants, refers to how experiencing these paintings as a total group reveals their unique characteristics and catalyzes a deeper visual experience of the paintings in relation to one another. Tyler’s sensuous, expressive painting style belies the fact that his work is highly structured and unfolds with deliberate shifts in color and form. While Tyler’s work shows the influence of iconic abstract artists of the twentieth century such as Josef Albers and Philip Guston, his work is also unmistakably of its time, formed in an age when daily visual experience takes place in digital space and painting has to assert its immediacy.

Russell Tyler (b. 1981, Summertown, Tennessee) lives in Brooklyn, New York. He received his M.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and his B.F.A. from Concordia University in Montreal. He has had solo exhibitions at Galerie Bernard Ceysson in France, Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles, Ribordy Contemporary in Switzerland (forthcoming), DCKT Contemporary in New York City, Freight + Volume in New York City, Alon Segev Gallery in Tel Aviv, Gordon Gallery 2 in Tel Aviv, and EbersMoore Gallery in Chicago. He has been included in group exhibitions at the Savannah College of Art and Design, the Torrance Art Museum, New Britain Museum of American Art, Anonymous Gallery, Retrospective Gallery, The Fireplace Project, Ana Cristea Gallery, Thierry Goldberg Gallery, ACME (Los Angeles), among others. His work has been reviewed or featured in Artforum, Hyperallergic, Modern Painters, T The New York Times Style Magazine, NY Arts Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail and Le Monde.

Denny Gallery will publish a catalog in conjunction with the exhibition with an essay by Alex Bacon.