The Samstag Alumni
The 2008 Anne & Gordon Samstag
International Visual Arts Scholarships
Tracy Cornish |
Hayden Fowler |
Giles Ryder |
Simon Terrill |
Joshua Webb
Giles Ryder's work is preoccupied with abstraction, but his interest is in minimalism. He started life as an artist later than some, having worked as an industrial painter on Brisbane's Story Bridge for six years before entering art school. The industrial influence, alongside that of the great abstractionists such as Rothko, is visible in his art with glossy, hard surfaces of colour evoking 'car culture'. He also uses neon signage and the reflective surfaces of advertising and consumption, and pared back, pearlescent and glossy striped paintings. All of these require interactivity with the viewer - the position from which the work is seen directly influences its effect.
In a recent (2007) exhibition at Peloton, a non-profit space he directs in Sydney, minimalist stepped coloured shelves, suggesting Donald Judd, protruded from the wall. Coated in reflective and glossy surfaces they were paired with a series of visceral, synthetic shapes made from expandable aerated foam, spray painted in bright colours, on aluminium rods - anything but sleekly sculptural - in the centre of the space. A pair of minimalist striped paintings, auto-lacquer on aluminium, completed the group. This collision of styles describes Ryder's interest in a reduction of form, colour, line and medium as a parallel to the compaction of modern art history.
Louise Martin-Chew
from her Samstag essay;
Alternative Realities
| Giles Ryder Born 1972, Brisbane, Queensland |
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| 2008 | Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship Guest Student, Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weiβensee, Germany |
| 2005 | Master of Visual Arts, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney |
| 2003 | Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours), Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney |
| 2002 | Bachelor of Visual Arts, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Brisbane |
Giles Ryder
The Speed of Night (detail) 2007
installation at BLOCKPROJECTS
gold-mirrored plinth, aerated foam, neon, gold-frosted light bulb,
transformers, paint, plywood, aluminium, mirror, perspex, steel
brackets, electrical cables
variable dimensions
© the artist
Some Kind of Electric 2007
installation at Peloton
concreting stands, hand-tinted and painted-gloss polyurethene on
plywood, aluminium, aerated foam, pigment, perspex, auto lacquer on aluminium
variable dimensions
© the artist