CONTEMPORARY ART IN CONTEXT

RYAN ADAMS  PAINTER AND MURALIST

When first encountering Adamsʼs murals, one might recall early twentieth-century Cubism. However, Adams has taken Cubism’s collection of faceted planes and multiple viewpoints to a new level. His signature “gem style” breaks down letter forms using bright color, shadows, and highlights to create visual movement and depth.

After visiting a proposed mural site, Adams develops color palettes for clients that he feels harmonize with the surrounding neighborhood. The color palette and forms give the mural a definite rhythmic flow that leads the viewer’s eye through the entire work, wherein Adams ensures that even small sections of the work are dynamic enough to engage the viewer’s interest.

Adams’s works often appear abstract at first glance, but his style is “letter-centric,” according to the artist. Gradually, words and letters emerge from the mural upon closer inspection. Adams uses words or phrases that suit the mural site. For example, in the mural Elements of Development on the walls of the Towson branch of the Baltimore Public Library, the artist embedded words in the design such as “explore” or “create” that embody the functions of a library.

His panel paintings, too, present fractured words, rendered in a vivid palette of colors. Awkward shows how deftly Adams’s work has evolved from graffiti to murals to panel painting. He credits his experience with graffiti for helping him learn how to paint on a large scale.

Mural painting is an art form dating back to prehistoric cave and rock art as early as 30,000 years ago. Many ancient civilizations, from the Americas to Europe and the Middle East, decorated architectural spaces with murals, often executed in fresco on wet plaster. Notable early examples include the palaces of ancient Crete (flourished 1700–1100 BCE), public buildings in Meso- and South America (ca. 500s BCE–1000 CE), and the Achaemenid palaces of ancient Iran (flourished 530–330 BCE).

Murals flourished in Western Europe during the Renaissance (ca. 1400–1600), when palaces and churches were extensively decorated with civic and religious imagery. At the same time in Japan, elite residencies were adorned with nature scenes on sliding paper panels. In the West, large-scale mural programs in fresco continued through the Baroque period (1600–1750).

A resurgence of interest in murals emerged in the twentieth century with the Mexican muralists, many of whom were influenced by Renaissance and Baroque traditions. The Mexican Mural Movement later helped inspire the revival of mural painting and street art in the 1960s into the 1970s. Today, muralism continues to evolve in both form and subject matter, with an emphasis on beautifying communities and encouraging local engagement.

Ryan Adams was born in 1984 in Portland, where he still lives and works with his wife, artist/designer Rachel Gloria Adams, and their two daughters. The two often collaborate on mural projects. Having drawn since he was a child, painting, drawing, and comics were always Adams’s escape. The epiphany that sparked his interest in spray paint and lettering came in fifth grade, when he received the landmark book Subway Art (1984) by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, which chronicled the New York graffiti movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

Adams majored in clinical psychology in college and worked in a corporate office until 2020, when he decided to pursue art full-time. He is primarily self-taught, pointing to his habit of drawing and redrawing comic illustrations to strengthen his draughtsmanship. He credits his sophisticated “gem style” as evolving from an obsession with color theory and lettering, developed through trial and error. He cites early African American and Hispanic inner-city graffiti artists as major influences, adopting techniques they pioneered.

What are some of the biggest influences on your work, including other artists, events, or things outside of the arts?
RA: I find most of my influences on my work come from outside of the visual arts. I have always appreciated musicians who are able to encapsulate the human experience within the fewest words possible. Similarly, I have always respected how comedians are able to use comedy as a vehicle to have conversations about uncomfortable topics. So, a lot of stand-up comedy and hip-hop music.

What is a typical workday like for you?
RA: A typical day for me starts with getting the kids to school. From there, it depends if I am on a site painting a mural or not. If it is during a mural installation, I head to the site, get set up, and get to work on the wall. If it is not during an installation, I split my time between working at home (if it is a day that has a lot of admin and communication work) and working at the studio (where I can chip away at paintings and organize for job sites). I often have multiple mural jobs and paintings going at once, each at different stages. This allows me to kind of ‘round robin’ the active work and keep each one moving forward.

Please elaborate how you progressed from graffiti to mural painting and two-dimensional fine art.
RA: I attribute the vast majority of my career to my years of painting graffiti. I really fell in love with letterforms, color theory, and creating solely for the sake of personal fulfillment. It was not a straight path, LOL. In short, I painted the façade of a building that had burned down with a colorful graffiti piece that paid homage to the business, and it received a lot of positive attention from the community. The owners sought me out to install around three murals in their new location, and it was the first time I saw the value murals could bring to interior spaces. This was before social media was big, so people would come in and see the work and ask who painted it. From there, more jobs came in and snowballed to where we are today. The studio practice was always in progress, but very much on the back burner. When I became settled with painting in my style at a larger scale, I started to really focus more on the exploration of that style in the studio.

What inspired your brilliant palette?
RA: I have always felt that colors have feelings. So, I try to have the colors in my work match the sentiment of the statement or to give a happy invitation into some very personal or serious topic (see take on comedians in the first question).

Did Cubism have any impact on your “gem style”?
RA: Cubism has absolutely influenced the gem style. I love how Braque would play with light and shadow within the pieces, using it to accentuate specific areas and bring the eye to the desired target. I use that within the work to help guide the eye through the embedded image or statement.

Does math/geometry play any role in your highly structured work?
RA: I use math the most when scaling my work up and figuring out the correct sizing of elements within the piece. As far as geometry goes, it is present throughout the whole process. The intermingling of familiar and new/unrecognizable shapes makes the composition. Finding the balance between those two is where I try to land.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself as an emerging artist? Or what advice do you have for young aspiring artists?
RA: I would tell younger artists that I haven’t found a shortcut yet. It’s all about the time spent exploring and developing your work. Also, be 100% transparent and authentic in your work. Always.

What are you working on currently, and what upcoming projects can you share with our readers?
RA: I have a solo exhibition in August of 2026 at Notch8 Gallery in Portland, Maine. I also have a few mural projects that are very close to home that I am excited about. I can’t go into detail yet, but both are large-scale and about the community where it is placed.

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Written by Karl Cole, Art Historian and Curator of Images at Davis Publications. kcole@davisart.com