Suspended breath

B. Sakata Garo

The quietness of Ryan M. Reynolds’ paintings is one of of suspended breath, whether his subject is a woman having a private moment in her space, or breakers gently rolling onto an Irish shore. Reynolds, an assistant professor at Santa Clara University, recently completed an eight-week fellowship at Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ireland in the fall of 2015. He has a skill for taking passing moments vs. life’s headlining ones, like a woman buckling her shoe in his series (In)habited, and highlighting the action’s grace. He also breaks up some of his images into panels, reflecting how choppy our memories—and slow digital files—download.