Ryan Pierce | Hot Hex

September 5 - 28, 2019

First Thursday Reception: September 5, 6 - 8 pm

Hot Hex marks Ryan Pierce’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery, and his latest large-scale, vibrant paintings feature allegorical scenes of chaos and beauty. In the new series, Pierce creates psychologically captivating pictures set in a dystopian future. Abandoned sites scattered with broken vessels, face masks and pieces of clothing hint at some kind of bacchanalian revelry, secret ritual, spiritual rebirth or the political activism of underground societies.

Pierce’s richly detailed paintings portray fragmented traces of humanity in vivid, dreamlike scenes where vines and flowering plants overtake man-made constructions. Indefatigable plant growth abounds as strands of ivy cling and wrap around wooden table legs or chain-link fences, forming new structures and demonstrating the fierce regeneration of the natural world.

Ryan Pierce received his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2007, and a BFA from Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2003. His work has been shown nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Elizabeth Leach Gallery (Portland, OR), Nine Gallery (Portland, OR) and at Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder (Trondheim, Norway). His work has also been shown in group exhibitions at the Schneider Museum of Art (Ashland, OR), STREAM Gallery (New York, NY), the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle, WA) and at Irvine Contemporary (Washington, DC). In 2019, Pierce was selected to participate in the inaugural exhibition of the Portland Art Museum's regional triennial titled the map is not the territory.