Carrie Johnson, Rockford Art Museum
To encounter the work of Michael X. Ryan is to step into a space of quiet attention, where the hum of the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Over four decades, Ryan has developed a practice that resists spectacle in favor of stillness. In Echoes of Presence and Place, we are invited to look closely, not just at the art, but at the subtle traces of human life that often go unnoticed.
Ryan’s process begins not in the studio but in the world: walking, observing, recording. A puddle drying on pavement, an oil stain on the road, the faint imprint of a body pressed against a surface; these ephemeral encounters become the foundation for work that feels both intimate and enduring. His restraint gives the work its strength. These are not declarations, but quiet reflections, suggesting that meaning lies not in grand gestures, but in the smallest marks we leave behind.
Raised in Syracuse, New York, during a period of rapid suburban expansion, Ryan witnessed the transformation of forests into roads and homes. This early experience shaped his sensitivity to shifting landscapes and the fragile threshold between natural and built environments. His work does not merely document these changes; it meditates on them, turning disappearance into presence and memory into form.
In series like Chicago Roadstains, Ryan uses the worn surfaces of the city to reveal the subtle imprints of human movement and time. Oil slicks, residues of spills, and footprints become the basis for large wood reliefs and drawings. In more intimate works like Body Press – Ghosts and Shower Puddle, the artist turns inward, capturing the brief contact between his own body and its surroundings. The result is a quiet archive of presence, his and ours.
Ryan’s wood reliefs begin with a stain or residue, reinterpreted as abstract, almost topographic shapes. These pieces do not announce themselves; they unfold gradually, like memory, layered, partial, and emotionally resonant. They remind us that landscapes are never neutral; they are shaped by our presence, just as we are shaped by them.
Echoes of Presence and Place is more than an exhibition; it is a map of sustained attention. Ryan’s work invites us to notice what we usually overlook: to see a footprint not as residue, but as witness, to recognize in ordinary markings a record of time, presence, and the fragile ways we inhabit the world.
As we move through this installation, we do not just view works on a wall; we walk alongside Ryan, across the terrain of memory and experience. In doing so, we may find ourselves rethinking what it means to be present and what it means to leave a mark