John Ryrie

Born, 1961, Melbourne, Victoria.

“While contemporary printmaking practise has witnessed the development of new formats for presenting the printed image, the work of some artists reveals a conscious continuation and reinterpretation of traditional forms.

John Ryrie has always felt a natural affinity with the craft of printmaking. In his late teens, during his early art studies at Sale (Ryrie had grown up in Maffra), he was particularly attracted to the powerful Symbolist and Expressionist woodcuts of the late nineteenth-century Norwegian Artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944), as well as the rugged wood prints of the German Expressionist. Later, at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Ryrie’s love of prints made from wood blossomed as he turned his sights to artists as diverse as William Blake (1757-1827) and Shiko Munakata (1903-1975).”

Dr Ted Gott