FEATURED ARTIST: JAMES RYAN
I’M delighted to introduce you to THE WORK OF JAMES RYAN—a deeply resonant artistic process and conceptual rigor.
James Ryan is an artist whose work explores the intersection point of human creativity and chaos, specifically the natural world and entropy. Within this framework, Ryan engages the tension of human interactions with mother nature and time, examining our need to order, bend and shape it to our will.
The series ‘Nid’, currently on view in the Art/artefact showroom, is a body of work that turns function and order on its head. Each composition is arranged from the weather-worn weavers of deconstructed decomposing baskets, scattered, seemingly at random, in a conflicted dance of visual harmony.
The French word ‘nid’ translates to ‘nest’, but can also figuratively refer to a den or lair. The word’s etymological root in Proto-Indo-European language and the Latin ‘nidus’ suggests more—a place or situation in which something develops or is fostered; the locus of an infection. Viewed through this lens of dual meaning, the deliberate deconstruction of the basket takes on a new form, one of actively pushing the boundaries of craft, culture, and nature to explore the human creative process and inspiration drawn from the natural world.
Installation view of Nid 3
“a conflicted dance
of visual harmony”
NID
Art/artefact is a nationally recognized art advisory and interior design practice founded by Audra Kiewiet de Jonge and known for placing a great collection at the heart of every interior.
Formally trained as a painter and an art historian, Audra’s modern sensibility is informed by her historical perspective—bringing art and objects into context and conversation with the way we live today.
Working with private and corporate clients nationally, our interiors are meticulously curated and expertly built to be high on artistry, but not on pretense.
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