In Visible Parts

As an artist, Rytt is drawn to the elementary premises of painting which acted as a source of inspiration and focus for the Concrete movement of the 1930’s as well as the Light & Space and Minimalist movements of the 1960’s. Exploring these ideas, Rytt expands upon the potential of Concrete painting and follows in a long tradition of earlier artists focused on a formal clarity within their work such as Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape and Olle Bærtling.

Rytt creates deceptively simple works that belie the meticulous and intricate processes that are needed to produce such balanced and harmonious painting. The razor-sharp painted field on the polyester canvas is a result of a rigorous craft. Rytt applies gesso and vinyl with a spatula on a stretched polyester canvas. The surface is then sanded back until it is completely smooth, making the monochromatic colours of blue white and red seem almost featureless, with the artist hand no longer traceable. This is form and colour boiled down to its essence.

Each material that Rytt uses is carefully and thoughtfully selected for its individual qualities; the vinyl medium is matte and absorbs light, the aluminium frame reflects light, the transparency of the polyester canvas subtly reveals the wall behind. Each of the separate elements that are brought together in the development of Rytt’s paintings are declared, with their unique characteristics shifting and morphing with their surroundings and environmental changes such as light. When the focal point is concentrated on the material components, each painting can begin to appear as sculpture, interacting with the architecture of the space and the viewers place within it.

Through these processes, the paintings develop a kind of visual ‘two-hander’. Appearing almost restrained, sleek and spare at first glance, gradually the combination of the textile, frame and the shifting light imbue these paintings with a warmth and a softness. This combination in balance gives the paintings a sense of subtle animation, as if the forms created within each work could slowly roll throughout the gallery space.

The title In Visible Parts alludes to the space and gaps that the artwork’s various elements interact with. The frame and the colour fields are central to the reading of the work but the title also points the attention towards the negative space created, the space we otherwise do not see but here becomes important for the viewers experience. The spaces between the works are activated when the painted fields reach outside of the paintings frame and meet or are lead to the next artwork. Through our gaze the shape seems to continue within this structural void and creates a wholeness that seems infinite in scale and potential. It is within these visible and invisible parts that the work begins to appear. Rytt masters the balancing act between positive and negative space, creating both a painterly and architectural experience that makes room, image and gaze interweave.

Disa Rytt lives and works in Stockholm. Rytt graduated from her MFA at Kungliga konsthögskolan 2012. Selected exhibitions include Polyfoni 5, Galleri Thomas Wallner; RÖR VID MIG NU, Olle Nymans ateljér; Women don’t paint very well, Hangmen Projects; Line of Flight, Galleri Thomas Wallner (solo); Bortom Glömskan, Galler Flach; Marvatten, Karlskrona konsthall; Lidköpings Konsthall; Disa Rytt, Galleri Anna Thulin (solo); 2013 Rytt received the Olle Bærtling Stiftelse scholarship. Rytt is represented in several public collections including Statens Konstråd, Region Skåne, Region Östergötland, Polisens konstförening, Apotekets konstförening, and in many private collections.