Kinsey/DesForges is pleased to present Virgina-based artist
Ryan McLennan in his first exhibition with the gallery. 

McLennan is part of a vanguard of young painters who have
twisted the conventional, naturalist approach to depicting
animals and environmental themes in mischievous ways to the
serious end of drawing attention to environmental issues. 
 
In the tradition of great naturalist painters such as John James
Audubon, McLennan has become both student and advocate: inspired
by many hours spent in the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains, this VCU
grad and Virginia native has undertaken an in-depth inquiry into
the evolution and displacement of North America wildlife, and
his understanding of changing patterns in their behavior,
incurred as a direct result of changes and destruction to their
natural habitats, is evidenced in his maturing body of work. 

Figuring prominently among the skeletal trees which serve as
broken shelter to the smaller wildlife depicted in his paintings
are fantastical plant-like bears in various repose—draped,
hanging, prone and often torn, McLennan's topiary bears serve
not only as sustenance and shelter for playful groupings of elk
and raccoons, moose and foxes, but pointedly appear to be the
only greenery available to them. The bears, in being devoured,
suggest a kind of symbiosis, but could also serve as effigies
for a human society that has upset the balance of global
ecology.

McLennan received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University
in 2002 and has recently been awarded a fellowship through the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and his work is to be featured in
the upcoming issue of New American Paintings.