Mark Ryan Chariker

Arcadian visions of imagined forest scenes are suffused with mystical light, situating them beyond any recognisable time or place. Meandering paths lead the eye into the hidden depths of these landscapes, enticing and yet denying exploration of what may lie beyond the dense foliage.

The American artist Mark Ryan Chariker approaches each painting, whether figurative or landscape, as “a reflection of psychological states of mind”. Using a subtle palette of ochre, umber and sienna, he creates lushly realised yet muted scenes in which environment and emotion become inseparable. The exact nature of these emotions, however, remains elusive. The teasing interplay between openness and impenetrability, revelation and concealment, denies the ease of snap judgements or definitive answers, instead asking the viewer to slow down, to ponder, to reassess.

Chariker’s works inspire the kind of sustained attention that underpins his practice.

An ardent student of landscape painting, he has been looking at Jean-Antoine Watteau’s Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera (1717) for a decade now, and still finds himself captivated by its mystery. “There are implied narratives,” he explains. “There’s a sadness there, a longing for connection.” Similarly, Chariker’s own works hint at hidden psychological depths, inviting the viewer to linger, to connect deeply with the scenes he depicts, and to formulate a personal relationship with them.

The artist was also inspired by Watteau’s technical approach to depicting leaves using thin glazes, which prompted a process of learning to construct entire paintings this way. He does not work from studies or references, so his paintings are created through improvisation, reacting to the marks that have come before and anticipating what might happen next. Building up thin layers of loose brushwork and glazes, Chariker gives his forest views a vivid sense of motion and luminosity that conjures the flickering of sunlight on leaves.

Chariker’s figural works convey the sense of an interaction arrested – caught in a moment between word and deed, poised on the precipice between what has come before and what may follow.

The figures appear together but remain detached, with their physical proximity underlining a pervasive sense of psychological distance. Casting sidelong glances, their heavy-lidded eyes don’t quite meet each other in communion or communication. Instead, one half of each pairing looks out at the viewer, making us complicit in the scene, while they remain paradoxically isolated in their togetherness. We are left to wonder: Who started the argument and what was it about? Are we about to witness a stumbling bar-room brawl or an embrace? What do these people mean to each other and how do we figure in their tableaux?

The artist considers each grouping of figures a collection of moods from various times in his life. While rooted in the personal, these enigmatic scenes take on a universal significance – hinting, perhaps, at the barriers to forging true and meaningful connections with others.