Ryan Wallace

Ryan Wallace (b. 1977, New York, New York, USA) makes work that re-conceptualizes how information is materialized. The artist uses found materials and reshapes, razes, and flattens them to create new forms. In his words, “the waste of one system becomes the structure of another.” This process serves to break the artist’s own everyday gestures as well as his instincts of painting directly on canvas. Instead, strips of canvas, vinyl, polyester, and plexiglass become abstract compositions. Wallace’s sculptures are made from his paintings’ excess materials, which he places in molds, pouring plaster and concrete over them. In converting recognizable objects into static sculptural forms, the artist explores ways of further decommissioning reclaimed materials.

Wallace received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He was nominated for the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in 2017 and was awarded the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant in 2011. He has also completed residencies at the Elaine de Kooning House and the Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts’ Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (2010). He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally at Susan Inglett Gallery, New York; Main College of Art, Portland; Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, Nevada; Romer Young Gallery, San Francisco; Albada-Jelgersma Gallery, Amsterdam; Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles; Islip Art Museum, Islip; V1 Gallery, Copenhagen (2014); Marianne Friis Gallery, Copenhagen; Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance; Artist Space, New York; American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington; and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco amongst many others. Wallace’s work is featured in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, Watermill Center, Watermill, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Wallace lives and works between New York City and East Hampton, New York, USA.