Ryan Standfest - A Catastrophic Insignificance

February 13 - March 14, 2026

​Artist Statement
I manufacture images of absurd contradiction in which specificity and vagueness achieve a comedy of  uneasy equilibrium. Termite-like, with a disregard for illusionism and naturalism, I erode notions of  certainty to bore down into idealism and disillusionment, aspiration and forfeiture. Uninterested in  symbolism, the structures depicted are exactly what they are: a building, a tree, a cloud, a rock, a  hole, a road. However, these forms populate a rigid, theatrical space where their seemingly inert  situational relationships yield a tension between order and disorder, meaning and meaninglessness.  Indecisiveness is staged in existential, emotionally reticent landscapes where doubt and irresolution are  reinforced. But there is amusement in various ironies such as unlikely shifts in scale, anxious physical and  spatial arrangements, the impossible distribution of mass and weight, and the simultaneous visualization  of emptiness and fullness.
Artist Bio

Ryan Standfest is an artist and publisher who lives and works in Detroit, Michigan. He has exhibited at  the Simone DeSousa Gallery (now Matéria, Detroit), which published a monograph on his work in 2020,  Wasserman Projects (Detroit), Western Exhibitions (Chicago), The Detroit Institute of Arts, and the  Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, among others. In 2010, Standfest founded the publishing house  Rotland Press, for which he has edited a collection of comic strips by artist and filmmaker David Lynch,  two volumes of political prints by Sue Coe, and a collection of early satirical cartoons by Swiss artist  H.R. Giger. As an arts writer, he has authored criticism and essays, appearing in numerous journals.  Standfest contributed a chapter to the book Radical Dreams: Surrealism, Counterculture, Resistance,  edited by Elliott H. King and Abigail Susik (Penn State University Press, 2022). He has been an artist-in residence at the Jentel Foundation (Banner, WY), the Kimmel-Harding-Nelson Center for the Arts  (Nebraska City, NE), the Ragdale Foundation (Lake Forest, IL), and the Virginia Center for the Creative  Arts (Amherst, VA). His work has been written about in Art in America, FRIEZE, Hyperallergic, The New  York Times, and PRINT. Standfest is an Assistant Professor of Art at Oakland University in Rochester,  Michigan.
Ryan Standfest - A Catastrophic Insignificance


Inventory

  1. Troubled Sleep, mixed media construction, 18x9x12”, $2,000
  2. The Domestic Affections, acrylic on wood panel, 16x20”, $2,300
  3. Ode to Joy n. 4, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”, $850
  4. Ode to Joy n. 9, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”, $850
  5. Ode to Joy n. 3, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”, $850
  6. Ode to Joy n. 10, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”, $850
  7. Ode to Joy n. 5, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”, $850
  8. Ode to Joy n. 8, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”, $850
  9. Ode to Joy n. 7, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”, $850
  10.  Ode to Joy n. 6, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”, $850
  11.  The Dumb Waiter, acrylic on wood panel, 14x11”, $2,000
  12.  The Produce of the Romantic Mind, acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 20”, $2,3000
  13.  Company n. 2, mixed media construction, 14x9x5”, $1,500
  14.  Factory No. 7, mixed media construction, 36x16x14”, $1,800
  15.  Company n. 4, mixed media construction, 18x9.5x9.5”, $1,500
  16.  Blood of the Beasts, acrylic on wood panel, 16x20”, $2,500
  17.  Alone Together, acrylic on wood panel, 16x20”, $2,500
  18.  A General Theory of Love n. 6, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 5.75x4.75”, $850
  19.  A General Theory of Love n. 1, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 5.75x4.75”, $850
  20.  A General Theory of Love n. 10, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 5.75x4.75”, $850
  21.  The Age of Gold, acrylic on wood panel, 16x20”, $2,500
  22.  A Foregone Conclusion, drypoint on Arches, 8x12” plate, $700
  23. The Merchant of Regret, acrylic, charcoal on wood panel, 18x24”, $3,000
  24.  A Rocky Patch, drypoint on Arches, 8x12” plate, $700
Buckham Gallery is funded by the following organizations:
Generous support is provided by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

​This program is sponsored by the Greater Flint Arts Council Share Art Genesee Grant Program made possible by the Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural Millage funds. Your tax dollars are at work!