Bio
Lance Ryan McGoldrick is an interdisciplinary artist working in a variety of nontraditional contexts. His work ranges from discrete objects to immersive environments, often created with combinations of found-objects, texture, light, and geometry. Incorporating youthful exuberance, his work explores environmental themes as a reflection of place and with a reverence for nature. His work appears in non-traditional spaces as well as in galleries, at festivals, and as public art installations.
Born in Placitas, New Mexico, Lance lives in Albuquerque where his parents, grandparents and larger community nurture a love of art and nature. He holds a degree in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of New Mexico. While taking art classes his whole life, Lance is largely self taught.
His enterprises have included the operation of a landscaping company and a screen-printing shop; he was also an award-winning display artist for Urban Outfitters. Often collaborating with other artists, Lance works with Meow Wolf building immersive environments in New Mexico, Las Vegas, Denver, and elsewhere. Since 2021, he has co-operated Bingo, a community of artist studios situated within a repurposed bingo supply warehouse in southwestern Albuquerque. In 2019, Lance received the Fulcrum Fund for his project, Lost Highways, a grassroots public art project that aims to place interactive artwork in small art towns throughout New Mexico.
Artist Statement
What is the life cycle of an abandoned object? What is its story? Does it still have value? I am fascinated by manmade materials, objects and structures that have surpassed their original use and, through the forces of nature, are becoming something else. As a lifelong desert dweller, I watch how the arid climate both destroys and preserves things. I salvage what nature attempts to reclaim, pausing the process of entropy to celebrate the innate beauty of warped forms and their weathered patinas.
When I was 4 years old, my grandfather’s house burnt to the ground. Those charred remains were my first playground. Later, I often entered an abandoned house at the end of my street to revel in the way that light filtered between its cracks. Throughout my life, I have been romanced by the material qualities of decay and have also found hope in their quiet resilience. I source materials that are on the brink of disintegration and build sculptures that are in conversation with their unique histories and places of origin. My artworks emerge from a poetic dialogue between nature and humanity, one that is shaped by my intimate experiences of inhabiting this land.
Concerned with the state of the environment, I salvage materials in order to recycle them but also to reflect on human behavior. I often visit illegal dumping sites to inspire visual statements about wastefulness. Once, I used a junked washing machine for a site-specific outdoor installation that addressed water pollution. Another time, I found a pile of giant, discarded polystyrene blocks and built a series of small, absurdist, and dysfunctional home-like sculptures to contemplate development, housing, and the meaning of home. Upon discovering a derelict arcade game, I made a statement about how humans damage nature by renovating the game’s glass-boxed interior into a hothouse flower garden; viewers could move the game’s claw to futilly and destructively attempt to pick a flower. I consider these found objects and carefully restore or recontextualize them, changing very little so they can still tell a story about their original use and value, and their naturally inevitable deterioration.
Whether building an interactive installation or a stage set or a piece of public art, I aim to produce viscerally poetic artworks that express a sympathy for time, place, and the delicate nature of existence.
