COLOGNE.- With Lacus PM the Kölnischer Kunstverein is presenting the American painter Ryan McLaughlin’s first institutional solo exhibition. The artist was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1980 and now lives in Sunapee, New Hampshire; in recent years he has developed an outstanding body of paintings, which will be presented in Cologne through eight works from the period 2012 to 2015. Most of the works are painted in oils on MDF and canvas, and they have something unpretentious about them – a quality that derives not just from the use of a reduced, subtle palette of colours. The small size of the works, whose formats range from that of a cigar box to that of a theatre or film poster, also contribute to this impression. While still lifes or depictions of more or less familiar-looking figures and everyday objects in a comic-like style were common in McLaughlin’s works from a few years ago – as can be recognised in works like Chicken Rabbit (2012), the earliest painting in the exhibition – the motifs of most of the works gathered together in Cologne cannot be unambiguously categorised to the same extent. They contain much that is schematic, which seems to be only hinted at and can be somewhat more clearly identified only in the course of more intense scrutiny. The German titles that he gives to his works occasionally provide a point of orientation in order to find our way into the paintings or, alternatively, their contents. The designation Wetter (Weather; 2014), for example, complements the schematic depiction of a map of Germany featuring the corresponding symbols for sun or rain, which are familiar to us from newspapers. In contrast, the painting Wasserbetriebe (Waterworks; 2014) can be understood as a reference to the Berlin waterworks, because a part of the lettering of the public utility company’s official logo has been adapted in the work, where it is juxtaposed, among other things, with an image of a dripping water tap as well as a historical steamboat. This exploration of symbols and lettering from the world of the everyday and of consumer goods – also seen in the work Dinkel (Hulled Wheat; 2014), which makes use of the logo of Seitenbacher, a company specialising in organic foods – seems to form an essential point of departure for the current works of the American artist, and this initially seems to link him to the tradition of Pop Art. However, where that direction in American art relied on the constant repetition and reproduction of mostly familiar icons and systems of symbols, McLaughlin instead focusses on peripheral symbols and lettering and then transfers these into the realm of abstraction through their schematic depiction. McLaughlin’s occupation with abstract painting thus represents a further important aspect defining his work. The way in which the artist deliberately distances himself from clear forms, articulates surfaces, renders the brushstroke and the different layers of the paint visible or marks the edges of the painting with irregular dashes and lines can be considered not just an additional important factor contributing to the distinctive impression made by the works but also an allusion to the history as well as the different manifestations of European as well as American abstract art. Beyond this, the specific characteristics of the works also lead us to recognise his interest in the questions of what constitutes an image and how it can be read or, alternatively, decoded. These conceptual lines of thought form the background behind the works gathered together in Cologne, and it is before this backdrop that Ryan McLaughlin has formulated his compelling paintings, which are permeated with a still and subtle power.