MARK RYAN CHARIKER

Lost Hours consists of five oil on canvas paintings made by Chariker during the first half of this year. This new body of work depicts figures caught in moments of stillness and contemplation. Golden and radiant light in his work evokes a frozen-in-time quality, achieved through many applications of glazing and tonal shifts. Although highly intuitive, in the sense that the artist does not work from studies or preparatory drawings, one has the impression that everything in the works has fallen into a precise place from a supernatural reality.

Rife with detail, each section of these angular spaces is active, pulsing with little brush strokes, creating a visceral sense of emotional containment. In Ghost Mantis, this psychological claustrophobia is highlighted by the presence of closed terrariums and a figure sitting in the corner surrounded on all sides by elaborate furniture. Embellishments on clothing, labels on bottles, imaginary text on the spines of books, Chariker’s gothic settings are as mysterious as the characters within them. Through this layered approach, each vignette activates the imagination to conjure its own narratives.

Mark Ryan Chariker (b. 1984, Spartanburg, SC) received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston, MA. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions, including Exhibition 15, PM/AM, London, UK; I have an idea!, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY; Platform, presented by David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY; Red Root, Green Root, The Valley, Taos, NM; and Home Alone, ATM Gallery, New York, NY. Chariker has completed residencies at PM/AM Gallery in London, RAiR Foundation in Roswell, New Mexico, SÍM in Reykjavik, Iceland, and NES in Skagaströnd, Iceland. His paintings have been featured in Artforum International, Artnet News, and Art of Choice. Chariker is represented by 1969 Gallery in New York, NY and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.