TIM RIPLEY: Soft Cell

END OF SHOW: SATURDAY MAY 11, 2013

Denise Bibro Fine Art, in Chelsea, New York is pleased to announce its exclusive representation of Chicago artist, Tim Ripley and his first solo exhibition in New York.

Soft Cell refers to the tiny soft polymer clay forms and environments that Ripley carefully sculpts, which are the precursor for his deftly painted oil paintings on panel. Ripley’s works remind us that technology has changed the way we perceive the world around us. Simulations, reproductions, and symbols have become more “real” than the subject they represent. This concept has become central to the process of Ripley’s works. His technical method includes physically sculpting polymer clay forms, and then composing his pictorial landscape by photographing them. The artist manipulates the value, color, texture and scale with digital editing programs, in high resolution for each layer. The generated digital print serves as a reference for the painting. Color decisions are based on a combination of sources: the print, the screened digital image and the actual sculpture created. Using a technique of “wet into wet,” with tiny brushes, painting three or four times over the work, he achieves the “Smooth” gradient shading effect he desires. A gloss varnish enhances the refined surface giving each work both a clean modern effect, as well as a timeless quality.
The fundamental idea behind the arduous process is to represent the surreal pseudo digital forms and environments created through mediations of form and subject. The titles of his paintings however, were taken from the names of 80’s movies, an obtuse relation to the painting’s subject matter. Ripley’s bright and shining adolescence shines through his titles, performing as a direct reference to the culture he grew up in, and the time period that shaped his character.

Ripley has an M.F.A from Northwestern University and a B.A. from Columbia College in Illinois. Besides showing extensively in the Chicago area, Tim Ripley’s works have also been included in exhibitions in Cleveland, Ohio and Houston, Texas.