Northern Ritual

Ryan Mosley uses traditional methods of colour production - grinding pigments and mixing them in binder - which allows for the vast and varied palettes seen in his work, which is embedded with references to paintings and styles of the past, along with an internal lexicon of images and symbols. ‘Northern Ritual’ depicts the idea, in the artist’s words, of ‘a group of women, possibly mothers, bonded through the trials of living and raising others, arriving at a venue, discussing others, but themselves practising some form of ritual. Not dancing per se, but being part of some form of dance. On a stage themselves, but in a performance they hadn’t rehearsed’. The composition is reminiscent of a theatrical space; the figures at the base of the composition conjure up an audience for the group in the centre, who are surrounded by growing plants, fronds and leaves that frame them in the scene.