Records are Written in Stone
new work by Ryan Thompson

Reception: Saturday, May 31, 6pm - 9pm
May 31 - June 22, 2014

Lease Agreement
3718 Ellerslie Ave.
Baltimore, MD 21218

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Science and belief are often positioned in a binary relationship. Conventional knowledge holds that their mutually agreed upon divergence speaks to two distinct and incompatible purposes in which science is housed in the empirical, whereas belief resides in the spiritual. Perhaps more significant than their differences, however, are their points of convergence: Science and belief both allow us to reach for meaning. In his solo exhibition, Records are Written in Stone, Ryan Thompson plays with this intermingling of science and belief in a series of deadpan explorations of geology, meteoritics, and crystallology. The conceptually-based photographic, sculptural, and drawing works simultaneously legitimize and defraud our search for knowledge in order to call into question our understanding of the world by drawing our collective attention to how quickly this understanding can fall apart. In short, it is as though Thompson enters this work in a white lab coat but exits in the glow of the psychic’s neon sign.

Ryan Thompson lives and works in Chicago, IL where he is an Associate Professor of Art & Design at Trinity Christian College. His current research examines various powers humans ascribe to geologic ephemera. His work has been exhibited at: Galerie Analix Forever (Geneva), EYEBEAM (New York), Links Hall (Chicago), Evanston Art Center (Chicago), Root Division (San Francisco), and Mila Kunstgalerie (Berlin). It has also appeared in: Making the Geologic Now (Punctum Books, 2013), Earth Works! (Format P Magazine, 2013), Reframing Photography (Routledge, 2010), and Cabinet Magazine (Summer 2014). His forthcoming book, Bad Luck, Hot Rocks (The Ice Plant, 2014), brings together original photographs of stolen and returned petrified wood, with conscience letters from the National Park’s archives. More of Thompson’s works can be seen at his website, departmentofnaturalhistory.com

This exhibition is the second of three that Lease Agreement will host as an ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions) partner gallery. ACRE is a volunteer-run non-profit based in Chicago devoted to employing various systems of support for emerging artists and to creating a generative community of cultural producers. ACRE investigates and institutes models designed to help artists develop, present, and discuss their practices by providing forums for idea exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and experimental projects. More information about ACRE can be found at www.acreresidency.org.

Lease Agreement is a collaborative curatorial project by artists Adam Farcus and Allison Yasukawa. Set in the living room of the couple’s rental house, Lease Agreement continues in the tradition of apartment gallery exhibition spaces by exhibiting conceptually rigorous, engaging work within the context of a home.