Ryan Wallace Silent Wave

Hunted Projects is pleased to present Silent Wave, a solo exhibition by New York based artist Ryan Wallace. Known for his evolving, process-driven practice, Wallace brings a new series of paintings to Edinburgh that navigate the terrain between construction and collapse, observation and invention.

In Silent Wave, Ryan Wallace continues his exploration of material reuse and procedural continuity, building on a studio methodology that recycles the remnants of past efforts into the foundations of the new. These works are not simply paintings, they are temporal documents, holding the ghost traces of earlier compositions, rehearsed gestures, and accumulated debris. Through seaming, inlaying, and layering, Wallace constructs surfaces that are rich in physical depth and conceptual resonance.

The exhibition title suggests a paradox: motion and stillness, force and subtlety, forwards and backwards. Likewise, Wallace’s compositions oscillate between chaos and control, front and back. Geometric fragments ricochet across the frame, coalescing with organic forms and luminous materials into subtle troughs and ridges. Metallic leaf, stained linen, and strokes of oil collide on visually dense planes that pulse with tension yet resolve into optical harmony. There’s a sense of entropy held in suspension, structures threatened with collapse, held together visually by the sheer force of each composition, and physically by metallic tapes and sheets of fibreglass.

This latest iteration builds upon Wallace’s previous inquiries, where light once dictated compositional rhythm. Now, chromatic disruption and tactile materiality introduce a different kind of frenetic order – more authored, less governed by external cues.

Ryan Wallace (b. 1977) has long been recognised for his ability to push the boundaries of painting through process. His mixed media works inhabit an ethereal space between the material and the intangible. With Silent Wave, he sharpens that focus, presenting a testament to the poetic potential of repurposed form.

Wallace’s work has been exhibited at BAM, Brooklyn; Marjorie Barrick Museum, Las Vegas; and University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Recent group exhibitions include: Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC (2024); Volery Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (2022); Bohemian’s Gallery, Natsume Books, Tokyo, Japan (2022); De Boer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2021); and The Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach, FL (2019). His works can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Schwartz; and the Schwartz Collection at Harvard Business School, Cambridge, among others.