Ryan Woodring: “Face in Clouds, invisible ink” | Rochester Art Center
On view September 13, 2025 – April 2026
Curator: Zoe Cinel
“Face in Clouds, invisible ink” is a solo exhibition by NYC-based artist Ryan Woodring. The exhibition encompasses several recent bodies of work that proceed both literally and figuratively out of a reckoning with invisible illness.
The title “Face in Clouds, invisible ink” refers to an emoji that the artist sends loved ones as shorthand for flare-ups; a simple data point for a diagnostically-avoidant experience. Sending the emoji with the “invisible ink” effect, shatters it into glimmering pixels that reconsolidate only upon touch. The works in this exhibition engage in similar cycles of rendering and refusal, bobbing at the surface of communicable experience in a post-AI landscape of hyper-classification.
Stemming from ritualized visualization practices, each work functions as a procedural export from a mediated exchange between an internal affliction and its speculative materialization. For example, in the series of 3D-printed candies Today (and Possibly Tomorrow) Woodring 3D models the contours of his illness while experiencing its impact on his life. As he writes in his statement about the piece: “Each model is made while experiencing the sensation it attempts to give form to. Employing basic tenets of art therapy and pain management such as creative engagement and distraction, the act of modeling transforms the signified (the effects of my illness momentarily lessening) and signifier (the 3D-model) in its process.” Similarly, the series of drawings titled Sick and Tired at the Met–present in the gallery as an installation and coloring book–is the manifestation of an on-site performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in which Woodring drew every object defined by the museum’s search engine as either “sick” or “tired” for 17 minutes each – the average amount of time an American spends with their doctor per visit.
Expanding on the relevant themes and multimedia qualities of the exhibition, there will be unique educational opportunities for visitors to learn and meet the artist including a drawing workshop inspired by the drawing practice used for creating Sick and Tired at the Met, a hybrid 3D modelling workshop, tours and talks.
About the Artist
Ryan Woodring (he/they) is compelled by his body’s furtive miscalibration to find sustained agency for unpredictable and illegible modes of being using experimental, time-based visualization practices. He draws from a decade of experience as a visual effects artist helping to realize award-winning projects such as House of Cards and Kubo & the Two Strings, as well as an extensive teaching and arts organizing practice. He recently founded the Soft Data/Base, a net archive compiling artistic practices that create soft data for illegible experience, and co-founded Prequel Low-Residency in Portland, Oregon.
Woodring earned his MFA from Rutgers University and is currently Assistant Professor of Digital Media at Drew University in New Jersey. He has exhibited and spoken internationally in various contexts such as The Museum of the Moving Image, Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts, The International Museum of Surgical Science, the Portland Biennial, and elsewhere, receiving project support from the The Andy Warhol Foundation, Regional Arts & Culture Council Oregon, Institute of Network Cultures, and others. His work has been included in publications such as Hyperallergic, Interview Magazine, and Redefine Magazine.
His writing has been published by the International Journal of Education in the Arts and Irrelevant Press. He is a 2025 Grand Rounds speaker at Mayo Clinic. Woodring lives in New York, where he is a member of Blockbusters Video and New Media Collective.
Exhibition Page: https://www.rochesterartcenter.org/exhibition/face-in-clouds-invisible-ink
About Rochester Art Center | Rochester Art Center is a museum of contemporary art located along the Zumbro River in the heart of historic downtown Rochester, MN. Founded in 1946, the Art Center hosts an ongoing schedule of exhibitions of work by local, regional, national, and international artists; dynamic educational programs for all ages; and an array of community partnerships and visitor engagement initiatives. Through world-class exhibitions and programs, the Art Center presents a welcoming, integrated, and diverse experience that encourages questioning, creativity, and critical thinking.
Accessibility | Rochester Art Center strives to be welcoming and accessible for all people. The building has an elevator and three flights of stairs, and all spaces are wheelchair and stroller accessible. Service animals are welcome. A designated quiet space is available on the 3rd floor. Masks are available upon request and guests are encouraged to arrive fragrance free. A range of seating options are available around the building and during programs. There are two gender neutral restrooms located on the second floor. Videos in this exhibition are captioned. For more information or to request CART and/or ASL accommodations, please contact us at least two weeks prior to the event: info@rochesterartcenter.org or 507-722-2552
Image: Ryan Woodring “spot healing” 2024. Single channel video. 9 minutes. Size variable.
ID: A digital collage combining 3 stills from the HD video that involves a stock image of a bent-over construction worker wearing red plaid and a yellow helmet and tool belt in front of a white background about to throw up. The bottom image has a faint transparent checkerboard pattern and a fragmented face. A caption reads “by just grafting some pixels from my face onto theirs.” A tilted image above this one depicts the construction worker with their mouth removed and an Apple Photobooth window open with a man hunched over in an apartment. A cutout of a 3D rendered man loosely and awkwardly resembling the construction worker stretches over the collaged stills underneath.