Ryan Hawk Sweet Surrender

Sweet Surrender, an exhibition of new work by artist Ryan Hawk, scrutinizes traditional representations of masculinity and power through narratives of horror, tragedy, and humor. Combining moving image and sculptural installation with silicone-based FX prosthesis, Hawk confronts issues of corporeality, embodiment, and representational objectification. This project expands Hawk’s ongoing artistic research into alterity and subjecthood in relation to the dominant cultural imagination.

Ryan Hawk is an artist and filmmaker whose practice spans sculpture, performance, and site-specific installation. He holds a BFA in studio art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and an MFA in studio art from the University of Texas at Austin. Recent projects have drawn inspiration from techniques and methodologies found within subcultural practices of horror, experimental film, and BDSM in order to imagine alternative corporealities and forms of embodiment. Explicitly engaging representational objectification, Hawk’s work subverts the gaze and viscerally confronts it’s viewers, challenging them to contemplate how structures of power are upheld within the dominant social and cultural imagination. Solo presentations of his work have been held at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum; the Museum of Human Achievement; and Art League, Houston. His work has been included in several group exhibitions, screenings, and performance festivals including Perform Chinatown, Los Angeles; Grace Exhibition Space; the Museum of Fine Arts in Nagoya, Japan; Jonathan Hopson Gallery; and others. Ryan Hawk currently resides in Houston, TX where he is a fellow at the Core Residency Program with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.