RITUALS OF RELEASE
Ethan Nathan
Lane Meyer Projects is pleased to present Rituals of Release, a solo exhibition featuring artworks by Ethan Nathan
December 10, 2021 - January 30, 2022
Opening Reception: Friday, December 20, 2021, 7pm - Late
For Immediate Release:
Lane Meyer Projects is proud to present Rituals of Release, a solo exhibition by Denver-based artist E. Garrett Bryant. Featuring three sculptural assemblages that double as fully functional fountains, familiar domestic objects take on garish and provocative hues. Pumping effervescent liquid throughout the run of the exhibition, utility is brazenly thwarted to make space for curiosity, criticality, and pleasure.
Imagined and assembled as hybrid bodies, the resultant trinity of sculptural fountains works to represent personal sites of erotic discovery and trauma. Using everyday objects to cloud material signification, Bryant aims to create new identity formations and sculptural bodies that have previously remained voiceless. Poised to give or receive, these constructed entities bear the violent marks of their maker; jagged porcelain edges, kinked metal bonnets, and snipped metal mesh alike tilt their chins into an endless bubbling stream.
In his Denver debut, E. Garrett Bryant uses the artist nom de plume Ethan Nathan, working across media, layering video, performance, digital fabrication, and sculpture, to construct new bodies that queer the gender binary via nonnormative material assemblages. Embedded in or accompanying each found material sculpture is a screen playing video composed of found and performed footage. Seeding each work is a deeply personal narrative surrounding the artist’s sexual history. In Rituals of Release, Ethan Nathan’s monstrous fountains eternally spring, seeping into the bedrock of Eros, searching for satisfaction where it has previously been deemed forbidden.
About the artist
E. Garrett Bryant’s brash performances and objects intertwine stereotypical elements of hyper-masculinity with his gender nonconforming interests to create a complex tapestry of identity. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Bryant’s performances, sculptures, and videos reflect his upbringing and his personal conflicts with cultural expectation. Named after a John Wayne character, Bryant is interested in exploring masculinity’s lineage within art history and challenging contemporary expectations of gender both inside and outside of the art world. Previous works have included using an axe on industrial steel sheeting “as if De Kooning were a lumberjack,” and sewing “work-dresses” out of salvaged Carhartt jeans. Pushing back against our current age of conservatism, E. Garrett Bryant holds the long-term goal to fill a rapidly widening void of erotic content and imagery in contemporary art and culture.
