Bumping into Ryan Estep through our Proustian questionnaire

One of the best way to approach art is by accident. Ryan Estep is a proof of this statement. He enrolled on a whim to art school after making his first twenty pieces or so, in his dad’s cold Michigan garage. He then moved to New York where he worked as a construction worker and art handler for galleries located in Chelsea. This unconventional background has led him to a successful first solo show at Thierry Goldberg Gallery last November, and more projects across Europe in the upcoming year. Ryan, who recently moved into a new studio, has answered our Proustian questionnaire.

 

 

Which is your favorite subject?

 

Every fashion and species of manual labor.

 

Do you believe in abstraction?

 

In the strict context of art, I don’t believe in abstraction, but I do have faith in it.

 

Which is the most inspiring place for you?

 

Construction sites.

 

Which is the quality you prefer in an art dealer?

 

I’m prefer those that have a kind of buoyant anger, the type that keep their perspective just above the horizon line; nearly drowning and always looking.

 

Which one in a collector?

 

Those that value process over aesthetics.

 

Who is your favorite artist?

 

The two headed love child of Joseph Beuys and Fassbinder.

 

Is there any color or shape you really hate?

 

I distrust every shape of green.

 

What makes an idea become an artwork?

 

There is a villainous anxiety that pairs with each idea, it’s a need to purge and calm that sensation which pushes the work outward.

 

Which novel is better comparable to your idea of art?

 

This is a bit of a cheat, but I would say Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, the year it was published. Misunderstood by many at the time as fiction, it maintained an empiric undertow of truth that continues to rear its head.

 

Which song or kind of music?

 

Any live-recording of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures circa 1980.

 

What would you have done if you were not an artist?

 

I’m not much of a thinker and so my body tends to gravitate towards the hard and obvious. I’m afraid this will be misunderstood, but I have to admit without a bit of detachment or irony that I love to sweep. I would hope that had I not found myself to be an artist, I would be sweeping.

September 22, 2014