Kim Garcia & Ajean Ryan
Curated by Dinghy Rig
Ajean Ryan and Kim Garcia are taking over the Peter D. Springberg, MD, Vault Gallery at the Museum of Art Fort Collins for an installation on memory and identity. As Asian Americans, both artists grapple with a double consciousness. Their work in characterized by a tension between the transparency of memory and its imperviousness. Identity depends on memory; if memory is slippery, so is our relationship with ourselves. This ambiguity is explored in the artwork – the artists’ distance from themselves.
Kim Garcia is an artist working in sculpture, drawing, and painting. Her practice centers on oral storytelling to explore the complexities of inheritance, postcolonial identity, and memory. She is the founder of The Cold Read, an online critique group and artist collective that engages gestures of care and support through writing and is one of the co-founders of after hours gallery an art gallery in Los Angeles that hosts two-person exhibitions. Kim has had solo exhibitions at Phase Gallery (2023), Best Practice (2019), and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (2017) and has exhibited in group exhibitions at Luis De Jesus, Feia, ICALA, Torrance Art Museum, and Human Resources. Kim is based in Los Angeles and received her BA from UC San Diego and her MFA from UC Irvine.
Ajean Lee Ryan received her BA in Fine Arts with a concentration in Painting from UCLA then went to receive her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at UC Berkeley. She has exhibited nationally and internationally in museums, galleries as well as non-profit spaces. She is an Associate Professor of Drawing at Colorado State University and currently lives in Loveland, Colorado.
Dinghy Rig is a collaborative artist-run art production and exhibition program launched by Aitor Lajarin-Encina and Marius Lehene. Kim Garcia and Ajean Lee Ryan’s Past Continuous show is the second installment of a long-term collaboration with the Museum of Art Fort Collins, which will be hosting the Dinghy Rig shows in what used to be the building’s safety vault room. The project benefits from the generous support of Peter D. Springberg, MD.
Image Credit: Kim Garcia & Ajean Ryan, It Blows Through, Installation Image.
