Ryan Dobrowski
If You Don’t Go to Heaven

November 20 to January 9, 2022

Ampersand is pleased to present If You Don't Go to Heaven, an exhibition of new paintings by Ryan Dobrowski. At a glance, his images seem subduedly direct in their telling, but a deeper consideration of his textures and titles reveals a sense of ambiguity and perhaps unknowing. The paintings are full of pairings, but is it unification or dichotomy? Is it harmony or a line of separation? A moment that has passed or one in the process of becoming? A sense of the liminal pervades his work, a place in between. In conversation he emphasizes the abrupt shift of being a touring musician with his band, Blind Pilot, to a state of required stasis in the spring of 2020—from a new city nearly every day surrounded by thousands of people to just sitting in an apartment in Denver. “Being forced to slow down enabled me to paint more regularly than I had in years,” he says. “I was able to see the leaves fill in on the trees and the ivy covering our windows. A butterfly that would come by nearly everyday during lunch.” He speaks on the phone from his new home in Tucson, where he moved this past summer. “Most of these new paintings have been made here. It’s beautiful, but also hot and harsh. There are butterflies and birds that I’ve never seen before.” I tell him it sounds nice, given it has rained here in Portland almost every day for several weeks. Having lived in the Northwest, he reminisces about the damp forests and waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge. “My friend from college was recently killed by a truck,” he writes in a followup email. “He was attempting to ride his bike across the country. Something I have always wanted to do. Oddly, it was not too far from this new house I just moved into, where I spend every morning watching the birds go about their business.” The exhibition title, he adds, is not a question of religious inquiry, rather a statement directed toward the deceased, “If you don’t go to heaven, then I don’t think anyone does.” The mood is both somber and celebratory, speculative and knowing. Worry about heaven or climb to the moon?

Ryan Dobrowski lives and works in Tucson, Arizona, splitting his time between there and the Pacific Northwest. He studied painting at the University of Oregon where he received his BFA in 2002. His paintings have been exhibited in solo and group shows around the country. As a musician, he also tours around the world with various music projects including his band, Blind Pilot. This is his first exhibition at Ampersand.