RYAN LEE

About the Gallery
Founded in 2013 by Mary Ryan and Jeffrey Lee, RYAN LEE has established itself as a welcoming place of discovery and dialogue for art ranging from post-war art to the contemporary. Celebrating emerging and established artists and estates, the gallery takes a multi-generational approach to its programming, presenting innovative and scholarly exhibitions across all spectrums of art practices, including painting, photography, video, sculpture, and performance. The gallery takes chances on a wide variety of boundary-pushing artists; their work consistently transcends political, cultural, material, or technical boundaries. In addition, RYAN LEE has, throughout its history, demonstrated its long-standing interest and dedication to feminist, Black and Asian American, as well as queer narratives in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The gallery is led by partners of different generations and backgrounds with over six decades of combined experiences informing its unique approach.

About the Presentation
RYAN LEE will present Heroic Bodies: Emma Amos and Richmond Barthé, an intergenerational show of two artists who shared a desire to celebrate the humanity, power, and beauty of the Black body. Born in 1901, Harlem Renaissance sculptor Richmond Barthé created intimate, refined, and romantic representations of Black figures that referenced classical sculpture. The artist studied dance with Martha Graham to guide his interpretation of movement and musculature, and produced a striking series of male dancers. Barthé’s rare early casts, including African Boy Dancing (1937), will be exhibited with newly released works by Emma Amos from the 1980s. During this period, Amos drew inspiration from media images of Black athletes such as Carl Lewis, Michael Jordan, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee to create her acclaimed series, Athletes and Animals, as well as idolized dancers like Josephine Baker and Bill T. Jones. The presentation will include the Water Series (1985), a group of works on paper that Amos described as representing “freedom… a definite letting go” of anxiety around her inability to swim.