Ryan Molenkamp

September 25, 2014, 9:21am

Erupting Unknowns: Ryan Molenkamp’s Fear of Volcanoes

The first time I came to Seattle was to board a cruise ship, the same reason so many other Northwest outsiders first experience this city. Since I had been traveling with family (not to mention thousands of other cruisers), the only time I recall being alone on the trip was during the cab ride back to the airport, after we returned to port. Sitting in the backseat, moving alongside the lines of cars traveling southbound on I-5, the faint image of Mount Rainier floated among the license plates. It was among this swarm of rendered, friendlier mountains that I first saw the real Rainier, looming seventy miles away, above the mass of clouds that coated the passenger-side window.

Although I have lived here for nine years, and few things I saw during the cruise visit look the same to me now as they did fresh off the ship, Mount Rainier still radiates the same sense of severe immensity, even during its sunniest appearances. Walking into SAM Gallery’s Made in the Northwest show, I was met with a similar hum of severity—this time coming from Seattle artist Ryan Molenkamp’s (NAP #97) painted volcanoes. — Erin Langner, Seattle contributor


Ryan Molenkamp | View from Mt Erie, 
acrylic on panel, 30 x 40 in., 2014. Image courtesy of the artist.

Listed under: Review

December 12, 2011, 12:16pm

Pacific Coast Issue #97 Sneak Peak!

The 2011 Pacific Coast Issue, #97, is now hitting newsstands across the US. It is expected to ship to subscribers in the next 1 to 2 weeks, so keep an eye out. The juror for this much-anticipated issue was Anne Ellegood, Senior Curator, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA.

In her essay, Ellegood notes that, "Painting is a surface for imagination. This is abundantly evident in the submissions I reviewed for this edition of New American Paintings. While the works presented in the following pages are notably eclectic, one striking correspondence among the artists is their belief that painting can offer us insights into our world..." -- View a list of all featured artists and see a few more sneak peaks after the jump!

Listed under: NAP News, Sneak Peeks

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