Matthew Ritchie
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Shadow Drawing, 2022
Powder coated steel and organic plant material
129.6 x 192 x 120 in.
329.2 x 487.7 x 304.8 cm
JCG12444
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Shadow Drawing, 2022
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Battle of the Trees, 2022
Oil and ink on canvas
66 x 76 x 1 1/4 in.
167.6 x 193 x 3.2 cm
JCG13762
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Yew of the Wood, 2022
Oil and ink on canvas
66 x 76 x 1 1/4 in.
167.6 x 193 x 3.2 cm
JCG13770
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Discriminator, 2022
Oil and ink on canvas
66 x 76 x 1 1/4 in.
167.6 x 193 x 3.2 cm
JCG13760
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Servant of the Fluid, 2022
Oil and ink on canvas
66 x 76 x 1 1/4 in.
167.6 x 193 x 3.2 cm
JCG13772
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Leaves, 2022
Ink, wax, and graphite on paper
15 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
39.4 x 31.1 cm
JCG13789
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Leaves, 2022
Ink, wax, and graphite on paper
15 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
39.4 x 31.1 cm
JCG13792
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Leaves, 2022
Ink, wax, and graphite on paper
15 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
39.4 x 31.1 cm
JCG13786
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Leaves, 2022
Ink, wax, and graphite on paper
14 x 11 in.
35.6 x 27.9 cm
JCG13794
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Leaves, 2022
Ink, wax, and graphite on paper
15 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
39.4 x 31.1 cm
JCG13790
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Leaves, 2022
Ink, wax, and graphite on paper
15 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
39.4 x 31.1 cm
JCG13783
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Leaves, 2022
Ink, wax, and graphite on paper
15 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
39.4 x 31.1 cm
JCG13787
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Leaves, 2022
Ink, wax, and graphite on paper
15 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
39.4 x 31.1 cm
JCG13793
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Leaves, 2022
Ink, wax, and graphite on paper
15 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
39.4 x 31.1 cm
JCG13782
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Leaves, 2022
Ink, wax, and graphite on paper
15 1/2 x 12 1/4 in.
39.4 x 31.1 cm
JCG13796
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Harbinger, 2022
Oil and ink on canvas
58 x 72 x 1 1/2 in.
147.3 x 182.9 x 3.8 cm
JCG13774
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Composer, 2022
Oil and ink on canvas
48 x 60 x 1 1/2 in.
121.9 x 152.4 x 3.8 cm
JCG13779
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Gardener, 2022
Oil and ink on canvas
46 x 48 x 1 1/2 in.
116.8 x 121.9 x 3.8 cm
JCG13781
MATTHEW RITCHIE
An Illustrated Lecture, 2022
Oil and ink on canvas
56 x 74 x 1 1/2 in.
142.2 x 188 x 3.8 cm
JCG13780
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Generator, 2022
Signed on verso
Oil and ink on canvas
66 x 76 x 1 1/4 in.
167.6 x 193 x 3.2 cm
JCG13761
MATTHEW RITCHIE
Caudex, 2022
Looped digital animation with choral soundtrack by Shara Nova
10:54 duration
Edition of 3 plus 2 AP
JCG12541
James Cohan is pleased to present A Garden in the Machine, an exhibition of new work by Matthew Ritchie, on view at the gallery’s 48 Walker Street location from September 10 through October 15. This is Ritchie’s debut solo exhibition with James Cohan. The gallery will host a series of one-on-one conversations between Matthew Ritchie and his creative circle, featuring Sarah Schwettman and Carroll Dunham, on Saturday, September 24 beginning at 2 PM.
A Garden in the Machine brings together two new series of paintings, drawings, and a related film with a monumental sculpture. These works explore the ways in which Ritchie synthesizes systems; from the mathematical to the botanical to the poetic, to create a deeply personal language of expressive hybrid forms. The gesture becomes a means of teasing out the overlapping threads and knotty contradictions between seemingly disparate realms of understanding.
Ritchie’s new paintings depict looping vortexes of chimerical limbs and primeval roots, strange organic forms that seem to hover perpetually on the thresholds of cognition and formation. In each work, he builds a richly evocative world that feels at once deeply familiar and eerily foreign. This push and pull between dissonance and harmony, between the beautiful and the grotesque, constitutes what he has referred to as the “plasmatic space of painting.”
These works are an outgrowth of Ritchie’s experimentation with a type of machine learning known as generative adversarial networks (GANs), which treat images as data from which to develop new imagery. For each of the series included in the exhibition, he trained the program using different databases of drawings, portraits, and landscapes drawn from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, medieval art, and his own works into a singular visual language. The GANs functions as an image generator from which he can intuitively build his own compositions.
To explore the exhibition in our online Viewing Room, please click here.
