Ramsay Wise

Working primarily in spray paint and acrylic, Wise’s paintings fit somewhere between abstraction and representation. He normally avoids proper paint brushes, paints only on canvases laid flat on a table, and mixes mediums. He is motivated by an empty canvas, broad archetypal subjects and unconventional application techniques. Wise teaches film studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

He finds landscapes compelling as subjects because they seem suited to straddling abstract and representational modes, the area between which he feels most comfortable working. They suit his application methods as well, which are often improvisational and decidedly industrial. Wise uses things he either finds in the garage or at hardware stores. Trowels, large masonry brushes, squeegees, spray paint applied directly from the commercial canister. He works quickly, canvas flat on a table, and the work is physical, standing always, rotating the canvas, scraping, pouring, spraying, and swiping. He is most comfortable working at 60/40: 60 % preconception and practiced technique and 40% whatever happens. Sometimes the whatever happens gets folded later into practiced technique and sometimes preconception and practiced technique veers wildly into wh...

Lots, for what it's worth.

GALLERY EXHIBITIONS

Underground Gallery, Kansas City, Mo. March, 2018

Art Saint Louis juried exhibition: The Golden Hour. St. Louis, Mo. September 16-October 26, 2017.

Columbia Art League’s Eclipsed Exhibition. Columbia, Mo. June-August, 2017. Jury awarded: honorable mention ribbon

Columbia Art League’s Quintessence exhibition. Columbia, Mo. January 17-March 10, 2017

Columbia Art League’s Give a Gift of Art exhibition. Columbia, Mo. November 8, 2016 through January 6, 2017

57th Boone County Art Show at Central Bank of Boone County. Columbia, Mo. October 15-16. 2016. Held over to November 17. Winner 2nd Place

Leach Theatre Gallery in Castleman Hall on the campus of Missouri S&T. Rolla, Mo. September through December, 2016

Tellers Gallery and Bar. Columbia. Mo. September and October, 2016

Frank and Billie Railton Gallery at The Etta and Joseph Miller Performing Arts Center. Jefferson City, Mo. May through June, 2016

UMSL Celebrating the Arts 2016. Provincial House, April 18-21, 2016. St. Louis, Mo.

Fayetteville Underground. Fayetteville, Arkansas. March 2016.

Dog Master Distillery. Columbia, Mo. December 2015 through February 2016.

Sager/Braudis Gallery. Columbia, Mo. November 2015...