Will Ryman is dreaming

Will Ryman, "Tuesday Afternoon" at Marlborough Gallery, NYC. Through Dec. 8.

Will Ryman's work can look like hell, which is absolutely perfect for the monster hangover he's laid out in Marlborough's new Chelsea space.

Ryman spent ten years as a writer and dramatist and first created sculpture for one of his plays in 2001. Narrative and character tension is still there in these playful sculptures that wear their handmade qualities pretty raw.

"Tuesday Afternoon" is made of two large sculture groups. One is a teeming city street with all sorts of characters and a beautiful lamp post. The other is a larger than life portrait of a man in bed, surrounded by a pack of cigarettes, Doritos, and beer. These two sculptures are designed to be read as happening at the same time -- a Tuesday afternoon.

The bed is amazing. There's a larger-than-life slapdash quality to the intimate way Ryman has formed each cigarette and Dorito with wire mesh and paper mache that's reminiscent of Claes Oldenberg. It takes disposable culture seriously not for irony's sake, but because junkfood and beercans are the props in our lives. Is the man on the bed asleep with a cigarette? Closing his eyes and dreaming? Maybe the street scene is a figment of his imagination. To me the man on the bed is the best portrait of a hangover I've ever seen. Ryman's suggestiveness plays well with the concrete messyness of his technique.

Check out Bluejake's photos from Ryman's last show.