Ryan DaWalt
ROY Alum, 2005
ROY G BIV hosted my first two-person exhibition while located in Columbus’s Short North district. I had earned my MFA from Ohio University in Athens only a few years earlier and was still discovering the themes and materials that would shape my artistic practice.
At the time, my work was highly experimental. I was interested in treating material and language as combinable substances—exploring the ways meaning could emerge through physical processes, myth, stream of consciousness, and personal narrative. Rather than reducing these investigations to pure conceptualism, I embraced their complexity and contradictions.
ROY G BIV welcomed this messy, exploratory approach. The gallery encouraged experimentation and gave emerging artists the freedom to take risks. That support was invaluable to me as a young artist.
During the run of the exhibition, a fire broke out in an upstairs space above the gallery. The water used to extinguish it pooled overhead and eventually poured through the ceiling, destroying a kinetic work included in the show. ROY G BIV responded with generosity and professionalism, reimbursing me for the damaged piece.
The amount itself was modest, but its impact on my life was profound. Within the following year, I relocated to New York City to pursue my career. Without that support at that particular moment, I may not have been able to make the move.
More than twenty years later, I remain deeply grateful. ROY G BIV provided not only an opportunity to exhibit challenging work, but also the encouragement, trust, and practical support that helped launch my career. The gallery’s belief in emerging artists had a lasting effect on my life and practice, and I continue to appreciate the role it played in my development as an artist.
Bio: Ryan DaWalt (b. 1973, Indiana) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is predicated on extending his material practice to include the invisible. Recent works investigate wavelengths within the electromagnetic spectrum through the use of magnetic phosphorescent pigments and ultraviolet light. His larger practice addresses the unseen physical and socio-political forces at work on our bodies and minds, and he believes that we are not only receivers but also broadcasters of these influences.