photograph courtesy of Ryan Sluggett
Wig Slip (Male), 2013, Fabric dye, tempera, acrylic, oil on fabric, 109″ x 74″. Collection of Jim and Susan Hill, Atlantic Avenue Art Block, 1011 9 Ave. S.E.
The artwork
Ryan Sluggett works drawing, collage, painting and animation into good fun and good art in Wig Slip (Male), one of a series of rambunctious, unresolvable, see-through abstracted portraits. His process involves visiting fabric shops to source poly-poplin materials like the acid green, bright pink and grey in this work, sewing them to form the ground. Freewheeling, he draws, dyes, paints, tapes and overlays with more fabric and paint, leaving traces of how he makes things and snippets of a slapstick backstory. Amid the colour, an arrow points to the falling hairpiece, as expletives fill the air in the top corner and a cartoonish grumpy bald guy scowls.
The artist
Raised in Calgary, Ryan Sluggett credits Chris Cran, Eric Cameron, Mary Scott and Arlene Stamp as early influences during studies at the Alberta College of Art + Design (BFA 2003). A graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles (MFA 2011), he now lives in Los Angeles but exhibits in Calgary regularly, with works in collections of Glenbow Museum and Nickle Galleries. Thanks to the collectors, Wig Slip (Male) is on view in the atrium of Atlantic Avenue Art Block, home to the Esker Foundation.