Stereo Field

Perrotin is pleased to present Stereo Field, Ryan Mrozowski's first solo exhibition with the gallery. Comprised of 15 new paintings, the exhibition engages repetition, deconstruction, and defamiliarization to disrupt the viewer’s automatic habits of perception.

Ryan Mrozowski creates paintings that engage repetition, deconstruction, and defamiliarization to disrupt the viewer’s automatic habits of perception. His recurring use of ubiquitous motifs, often floral or botanical, becomes a deliberate site of visual experimentation. Mrozowski’s works function as visual puzzles: fragmented patterns, mirrored forms, and calculated omissions invite the viewer to piece together what seems coherent at first glance but quickly unravels under close inspection. His compositions unfold as ever-changing arrangements in which meaning is produced through movement, overlap, and the tension between recognition and uncertainty.

Mrozowski playfully uses abstraction to represent form, and his precisely painted technical effects help us explore the sensory experiences that make us distinctively human. As an artist uniquely informed and interested in the science of cognition, he uses painting’s nuances to reflect upon binocular vision. His art activates the left and right sides of the brain, highlighting our capacity to understand complex spatial relationships innately.

All of the artworks included in this exhibition are meant to challenge us as viewers to put equal effort into the act of viewing as Mrozowski has put into creating the paintings in the first place. Art is never static and inert if you really know how to examine it. That is a skill that we all have, but which benefits from being honed and sharpened through practice and patience. Mostly, in this day and age, it requires slowing down and reconnecting to the pleasures of being present with the gifts everywhere in our midst. Ultimately, Mrozowski’s artworks are about the glories of human experience that are freely available for those willing to seek and perceive them. Life — it’s confusing and hard, but also fascinating, inspiring, and truly beautiful if you know where and how to look.

Text by Daniel S. Palmer Chief curator at the SCAD Museum of Art, U.S.