Rial Rye: Oscillation
@ Ignition project space
3839 W Grand Ave Chicago, IL 60651
Opening Friday, September 4th, from 6PM - 9PM
On view through Saturday, September 26th
Rial Rye
Oscillation
solo exhibition
September 4 – 26, 2026
Opening reception: Friday, September 4, 6-9pm
Oscillation translates ocular trauma and somatic disruption into a visceral visual ecosystem. Rooted in the artist personal experience with eye injury, the work replicates the resulting disorienting perceptual shifts, visual static, and persistent sensation of nausea.
Through a reductive subtractive process, high-visibility signal pigments are applied to wide wooden panels and are chaotically carved away. The act of gouging and excavating through fields of high-contrast green, purple, and intense neon accents reveals the raw wood grain underneath, creating a textured topography that vibrates against the eye. The undulating, maze-like line work mimics optical interference, ocular drift, and phantom shapes, forcing the viewer’s gaze into a restless state of micro-adjustments.
By scaling these perceptual distortions up to an immersive triptych, Oscillation bridges the internal mechanics of neurological and ocular damage with external physical space. High-contrast safety hues—typically deployed to signal hazard or demand attention—here function as an unsettling sensory overload, inviting the viewer to inhabit the uneasy equilibrium between clarity, disruption, and physical vertigo.
Rial Rye is a self-taught contemporary artist and sculptor based in Atlanta, Georgia. Grounded in a deeply autobiographical practice, Rye’s work translates first-hand lived experiences, physical trauma, and personal history into tactile visual phenomena. Through subtractive wood carving, intense optical fields, and high-visibility pigments, their work investigates the raw intersections of perception, memory, and material culture.
Official Website
More events on this date
Tags: Chicago, Ignition project space, Oscillation, Rial Rye
« previous event