Giles Ryder
Giles Ryder is a light designer and painter who has been featured in over 20 solo exhibitions across Australia and internationally. Countries in which Giles' work has been displayed include Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Germany, Scotland, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Recent solo exhibitions in Thailand include INKHONG ARTSPACE and TARS Gallery as well as double features at Mars Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. Professional residencies and fellowships include the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, South Korea and a University of Melbourne sponsored opportunity at NeNa Contemporary Artspace in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Notable publications include features in Art Collector magazine, Vault magazine, and the Sydney Morning Herald.
The light designed installations are abstract or abstracted in nature, sometimes resembling heads or distant cosmic galaxies yet observed by humans. Containing linear fluorescent beacons bent to Giles’ will, the light art remains abundant in sensuous curves and strategic in angular form. The colors of the works range from bright neon tones to rich primary and pastel colors. Gile’s most notable paintings were created over a decade ago as he seems more focused on light design installation in recent years for which he remains best known.
Two notable and similar light installations may be found pictured above and below. Portraying two distant angles with the piece below showing how the light design interacts with a contemporary interior renovated space while the work above portrays a close up cropped view of his abstract light approach. Like three dimensional paintings, they form in the air with a total circumference and galaxy-like appearance as if depicting entire lit up solar systems. The fascinating mix of neon and primary colors, along with the curvature, creates an illusion as if traveling through space and time to observe planetary movement and shooting stars. The linear lights which strategically surround the light sculptures create a sense of rapid motion.
Painting in Stereo (pictured below) remains one of Giles’ most notable paintings in regard to the relationship with the light design installations. Similar to his light works, Painting in Stereo delves into rich variations of neon, pastel, and primary colors in linear fashion. Like a light show, the nuanced colors and hues display cleanly across a diptych of canvases and almost seem to cast a shadow upon themselves with the formation of being split into two triangles on each surface.
Giles Ryder conveys contemporary aesthetics and abstraction with experimental media. The sheer visual stimulation of lights formed in motional formats along with the interactive illumination creates both a breathtaking in-person experience as well instilling interesting compositional photography documenting the art. With an impressive resume and art which conveys contemporary aesthetics with New Wave, galactic, and rave-like qualities, Giles Ryder builds upon refreshing takes on sensory experiences.
