MAN IN A RING MOLD A PAINTING SHOW BY PATRICK JAMES DONOVAN April thru May 7 2023 Sat + Sun 1-6pm and by appt. Man in a Ring Mold, a premiere solo exhibition of paintings by Patrick James Donovan, reveals the artist as a playful jester taking artifice to heart; trompe l’oeil and subject matter fuses his socio self-awareness and musings on the institutional. Donovan writes, “The self-consciousness of these paintings presents themselves as the object of reality, rather than what is represented.” Man in a Ring Mold shows an oeuvre of paintings in various styles showcasing differing techniques and forms explored by Donovan. Shirtless men, Amazon packages, surveillance, laboring bodies, a baby wearing a VR headset, old ladies, homelessness, and 60’s inspired space age furniture are all rendered in studied representations with a palette of hues that diffuses the potentially polemic. The way a soft focus reduces sharpness, the colors of pinks, grays, light blues, yellows, and light greens transform these 21st century concerns. Man in a Ring Mold isn’t offering platitudes, instead it represents the pursuit of enjoyment in what painting can do when relational aesthetics smash into each other. What appears as a documentation of an outward curiosity also veritably defines a painter painting themselves. - Nilay Lawson, Artist Born in Washington DC, and raised in Alexandria VA, Donovan had an inherent skill and interest with drawing and painting. Donovan spent much of his life on the east coast, attending college in Boston, and working as a lawyer without a dedicated art practice. Donovan kept up-to-date on matters regarding Art by visiting museums, galleries, and private collections as well as occasional courses. Donovan currently lives and works in downtown Los Angeles with an art studio in walking distance from his residence, getting into the studio twice a day with a lunch break at home in-between. This life is filled with a studious daily structure and unadulterated engagement with all things Art including attendance in group exhibitions, gallery openings, artist-run events, museum exhibitions, and studio visits and solo exhibitions. A 75 year old emerging artist Donovan has previously shown work in Los Angeles at Blackstone Gallery, Lava Projects, the Queer Biennial 2018, SoLA Contemporary, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, and Last Projects; in Sacramento at the Crocker Art Museum; and in San Francisco at Paolo Meija Projects. His work was included in New American Painting, Pacific Coast Edition (2013). He has a BA (1971) in philosophy from Brandeis University and an MFA (2012) in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute.