When

Jul 21, 2020

Type

Sculpture

Where

Sculpture & Architecture Park

Will Ryman's Pac-Lab, is a series of walls and pathways designed to mimic a video game maze in large-scale, which visitors can enter and navigate. Ryman hand-sculpted the walls of the maze in clay, creating the effect of a primitive monument; each wall is painted a bold primary color (colors that recall our childhood associations of art-making, as well as the paintings of Piet Mondrian). While visually playful, Pac-Lab serves as a meditation on our contemporary consumer culture. A monument suitable for our era, Pac-Lab reflects the constant choices and many paths we face daily - whether in a physical space or a virtual reality. Park visitors have the freedom to explore and choose their own journey through the maze.

Will Ryman is an American artist, and the son of Robert Ryman, a minimalist painter, and Merrill Wagner, also a painter. His work has been shown at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, at the Marlborough Gallery in New York, and at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Will Ryman is internationally recognized for his bold figurative sculptures that take their inspiration from the urban landscape and flora of epic proportions. Ryman playfully imbues his figurative symbols with an acute sense of theatricality and emotion that harkens back to his early career as a playwright. In his psychologically penetrating sculptures and installations, Ryman explores the ways in which poignant narratives can be expressed using a range of found objects and repurposed materials.