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![\"Dreamhouse](\"https:\/\/nationaljeweler.com\/rails\/active_storage\/blobs\/redirect\/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBbkZpIiwiZXhwIjpudWxsLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--356b093d5ac04a5dcb03ffff93e66b6d7e2e36f3\/111825_Dreamhouse%20insert.jpg\" "\\"“Dreamhouse”")
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\n \u201cDreamhouse\u201d is made with malachite, azurite, lapis lazuli, amazonite, aventurine, turquoise, chrysocolla, magnesite, howlite, amethyst, garnet, serpentine, quartz, chalcedony and quartz stalactite, fluorite, coral chalcedony, zeolite, larimar, sodalite, calcite, acrylic, steel, aquaresin, stainless steel nails, and steel pins on coated polystyrene. (Image credit: Lance Brewer)\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The piece took three years to make, the gallery said, and it is the first raspberry to appear in Ryan\u2019s \u201cBad Fruit\u201d series, which began in 2018.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The series features large fruit sculptures\u2014including oranges, melons, and grapes\u2014encrusted with glass and acrylic beads and semiprecious gemstones, resembling size-distorted mid-century-era pushpin fruit. <\/p>\n
A single lemon contains 10,000 beads and stones, Ryan said in a 2019 interview<\/a> with the New York Times\u2019 T Magazine about her process.\u00a0<\/p>\n The vanitas-inspired works are a comment on, among other things, worldly excess.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not just opulent, there\u2019s an inherent sense of decline built into them \u2026 which is also something that\u2019s happening in the world: The economy is inflating, but so is wealth inequality, all at the expense of the environment,\u201d Ryan said in the interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThough the mold is the decay,\u201d she said, \u201cit\u2019s the most alive part.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Related stories will be right here \u2026\u00a0 Two roughly 7-foot sculptures leaning against the wall appear simultaneously as discarded mattresses and huge slices of bread.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSunset Strip\u201d features mold blooms in the shape of clouds, while \u201cStarstruck\u201d appears burnt, almost overtaken in full by decay.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n \u201cSunset Strip\u201d is made of amethyst, rose quartz, agate, calcite, chalcedony, kyanite, celestite, stilbite, apophyllite, aquamarine, rhodonite, sodalite, quartz, cherry quartz, glass, acrylic, and aluminum and steel pins on coated polystyrene. (Image credit: Lance Brewer)\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cStarstruck\u201d consists of agate, tektite, obsidian, amethyst, amber, pyrite, hematite, lapis lazuli, lava rock, black kyanite, smoky quartz, garnet, carnelian, jasper, tiger eye, wood, glass, acrylic, and aluminum and steel pins on coated polystyrene. (Image credit: Lance Brewer)\n <\/p>\n Alongside the gemstone-studded sculptures, the exhibition also features a set of oversized rings centering \u201cgems\u201d made of bowling balls and faceted glass surrounded by a halo of soda cans. <\/p>\n They have bands scaled to a human waist rather than a finger and resemble the plastic toy favors a child might bring home from a princess-themed party, the gallery said. <\/p>\n Karma notes that jewelry as form and a \u201csymbolically loaded object\u201d is one of Ryan\u2019s longtime motifs.\u00a0 <\/p>\n \n At left, \u201cSweet Nothings\u201d and \u201cHeavy Heart\u201d (Image credit: Jeff McLane) and at right, \u201cShow Pony\u201d (Image credit: Lance Brewer)\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n In \u201cShow Pony,\u201d \u201cHeavy Heart,\u201d and \u201cSweet Nothings,\u201d the sculptor \u201cteases out jewelry\u2019s sentimental values as stand-ins for devotion, taste, or generational ties,\u201d the gallery said, upending them through plays of scale and material. <\/p>\n The set of rings is one of two new bodies of work that debuted in \u201cSouvenir.\u201d The other is a trio of cast-concrete peaches\u2014”Heartbreaker,\u201d \u201cHeartthrob,\u201d and \u201cWild Heart\u201d\u2014with their pits supplanted by engines. <\/p>\n Ryan was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1984. Today, she lives and works in New Jersey. <\/p>\n She graduated with a bachelor\u2019s degree from Pitzer College, in Claremont, California, in 2006 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California in Los Angeles in 2014. <\/p>\n Her work has been collected by institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
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Other non-fruit works rendered in stones and beads arranged to map states of decay are also on display in the exhibition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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