Erin Cluley Gallery is pleased to announce current, an exhibition of new work by Dallas-based artist, Ryan Goolsby. The exhibition will debut new sculptures conceived around the rich symbolism of fountains. Simplifying architectural motifs into geometric patterns, Goolsby’s wall sculptures blend the lines between painting and three-dimensional art while maintaining a rigorous commitment to craftsmanship. The artist’s new sculptures explore water’s movement formally and how it parallels the shapes of electromagnetic fields and the circulatory system of the human body. current builds on his previous work of abstracting the banal and focuses on the structure of the fountain.

Ryan Goolsby constructs his sculptures utilizing a combination of traditional woodworking and digital techniques. His meticulous preparation of natural woods provides a substrate for routing patterns via the use of a CNC machine. The artist’s patterns are designed first digitally then transcribed into the surface of wood grain. Layers of colored resin and paint are applied to the surface of the wooden patterns, transforming the works into elegant geometric abstractions. Broken up into separate pieces, the final sculptures come together to form a disconnected, but structurally symmetrical composition. Overlapping lines, transitioning from linear to curlicue, both comfort and challenge the viewer’s eye. In current, Goolsby’s complex patterns affirm his subject matter’s constantly unstable nature.

current explores the familiar symbol of water as it is captured in architectural structures like fountains and the human body. Goolsby uses repeated shapes and color to disrupt liquid’s flow through art. His sculpture’s optical illusions become apt metaphors for water’s resistance to complete apprehension; just as patterns in the artist’s sculptures intersect, moving between simple and complex, so does liquid travel through a surface or body. Untitled (2025) is a large-scale wood sculpture resembling an Art Deco water fountain. Arches range in size from small to large as if being pushed from spickets at varying pressures. Points where the arches overlap across individual pieces create a visual effect of blurriness, seeming to ripple even if they are structurally frozen.

In Ryan Goolsby’s newest presentation of work at Erin Cluley Gallery, the artist translates the soft nature of flowing liquids into the framework of solid materials. His sculptures resemble the flow of water and electromagnetic fields, two structures known for their fluid movement in and out of cohesion. current shows Goolsby melding the materiality and conceptual underpinnings of his work seamlessly, still allowing room for the flux of things in constant movement. current will be the artist’s second solo presentation with Erin Cluley Gallery. It will be exhibited concurrently with an exhibition of work by 2025 Cluley Projects open call winner Leili Arai Tavallaei.