Will Ryman is no stranger to New York. Born and raised there, the artist has made the city his subject, studio, and exhibition space, displaying his large-scale sculptures and vignettes in galleries, museums, and in public for decades. Ryman’s work is recognizable for its subtle humor and theatrical nature, stemming from his background as a playwright. Often putting a mirror up to social and political issues, he addresses a range of concerns, including economic inequality, while also celebrating the diversity, edginess, and beauty that gives New York its unique character. In his latest solo show “New York, New York,” opening September 9 at Chart, Ryman puts his love for the city front and center. 

“I love everything about this city. The energy. The people. Everything,” he tells Cultured. An ode to New York, the show truly reflects all facets of society, including pigeons, parks, and subways. Celebrating the grit that the city is known for is a mangled wire trashcan filled with brightly colored garbage including discarded food, soda cans, a disposable facemask, and a MetroCard. Piled into an impossibly high column, the work appears almost like an homage to trash and is ironically tilted Utopia (2022).

Ryman also highlights the vibrancy and beauty that comes with life in New York. In The Hip Hop Streets (2022), vivid red roses grow in a bed of dirt and trash. “I am interested in juxtaposing cultural symbols with the environment,” he explains. “In the context of this show, it’s the idea of beauty and hope growing out of the soil of trash and headlines.”.

Roses have been a recurring motif for the artist, appearing often as large-scale public works, a “global symbol,” as Ryman calls it. His early use of the flower began in 2011 with the acclaimed The Roses installation of giant pink and red fiberglass and stainless-steel blossoms that spanned 10 blocks of Park Avenue. As with his new piece, a closer look revealed a healthy dose of urban reality with giant bugs and dangerous thorns. A similarly monumental rose is installed at LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton. 

Grit and beauty are constantly at play throughout Ryman’s show, as are references to the people and systems that make up the city, including the NYPD and Wall Street. In one narrative vignette titled The Exterminator (2008/2022), he has created a large figure in a hazmat suit and equipped with a metal canister. Scattered underfoot are tiny businessmen who flee as the exterminator points his hose in their direction. Ryman made the work after the housing market collapsed in 2008 but has never shown it before. “Like a lot of my work, it was made intuitively and now, with some distance, I find that the ideas are timeless,” he says, adding that new circumstances can change how a work is viewed. “The hazmat suit can be seen through the perspective of the pandemic, or not. And the figures add a sense of humor. As in a lot of my work, humor allows the viewer to be more engaged.”

Indeed, maintaining a sense of humor is necessary to live in New York. Everyday occurrences like flowers growing from trash might feel absurd to an outside observer, but it’s these juxtapositions that make the city so vibrant. “It is my home,” says Ryman. “I was born and raised here. And will always be here. It’s home.”

“New York, New York” is on view at Chart from September 9 to October 22, 2022  at 74 Franklin Street, New York, New York 10013.