I am an interdisciplinary artist drawing inspiration from abstract visual phenomenon encountered in mundane places and everyday objects. My work takes the form of sculptures, paintings and works on paper that often imitates the form and function of mechanical processes and their by-products. In my woven paper works for instance I use off-cuts and test patterns from the margins of product packaging and other printed matter as raw material in order to fashion explorations of arrangement and pattern that conjure op-art and color theory experiments. My studio practice is marked by this kind of playful yet formal problem solving while combining strategies of appropriation and seriality with traditional art making and an earnest approach to craft. My visual lexicon consists of forms, patterns and color pallets derived from sources such as industrial agriculture, early childhood learning toys, package design, institutional architecture, thrift store objects, the afore mentioned commercial printing processes, as well as interstitial spaces in the built environment. Using this lexicon I organize and recombine sets of elements in order to create work that is discovered rather than composed. During this working process I seek to reconcile the work’s form with its method of creation and material context, to create work that uses process to coax meaning from material. I think of it as a way of decoding systems embedded within our visual culture.
-Anthony Ryan 2015