Ryan McGinness is a contemporary artist from VA Beach who currently works and lives in NYC. His work,
Art History Is Not Linear, was commissioned by the VMFA and shows his inspiration from pieces within the museum. McGinness creates 200 icons from these works and features them in a series of pop art paintings. The exhibition has three parts that bring his creative process to life. It is separated between a visual of his studio and a section showing a few of the specific objects he chose to feature from the museum and his icons alongside them. The last portion contains a few of his early works he drew while growing up in Virginia.
It was exciting to see how a contemporary artist blends both the past and present. The exhibition will be at the museum until October 19. It is definitely worth the trip to see the collections at the VMFA and how McGinness incorporates them into his paintings.
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| studio space |
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| Serpent King (Nagaraja), 15th- 16th C and inspired icon by McGinness |
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| process of creating his Serpent King icon |
