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 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 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
Inventory
- Troubled Sleep, mixed media construction, 18x9x12”
- The Domestic Affections, acrylic on wood panel, 16x20”
- Ode to Joy n. 4, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”
- Ode to Joy n. 9, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”
- Ode to Joy n. 3, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”
- Ode to Joy n. 10, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”
- Ode to Joy n. 5, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”
- Ode to Joy n. 8, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75"
- Ode to Joy n. 7, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”
- Ode to Joy n. 6, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 4.75x5.75”
- The Dumb Waiter, acrylic on wood panel, 14x11”
- The Produce of the Romantic Mind, acrylic on wood panel, 16 x 20”
- Company n. 2, mixed media construction, 14x9x5”
- Factory No. 7, mixed media construction, 36x16x14”
- Company n. 4, mixed media construction, 18x9.5x9.5”
- Blood of the Beasts, acrylic on wood panel, 16x20”
- Alone Together, acrylic on wood panel, 16x20”, $2,500
- A General Theory of Love n. 6, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 5.75x4.75”
- A General Theory of Love n. 1, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 5.75x4.75”
- A General Theory of Love n. 10, colored pencil, graphite on Arches Cream, 5.75x4.75”
- The Age of Gold, acrylic on wood panel, 16x20”
- A Foregone Conclusion, drypoint on Arches, 8x12” plate
- The Merchant of Regret, acrylic, charcoal on wood panel, 18x24”
- A Rocky Patch, drypoint on Arches, 8x12” plate
|
Buckham Gallery is funded by the following organizations:
|
|
Generous support is provided by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Community Foundation of Greater Flint.
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!
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!
