Robert Coomer - Robert Coomer is an internationally recognized, award winning photographer who grew up on a farm in Brown County, Ohio. Art has always been a part of his life and in 1994 he graduated with a BS degree in Graphic Design from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning. He draws from his farm roots to shoot images of backyard wildlife, old barns, farmscapes, and scenic landscapes in Southwestern Ohio and Eastern Kentucky. His work is an exploration of light and subject, and discovering beauty in unexpected places. I find beauty in age and decay, and then reproduce it in a way that maintains a sense of time and place. To do this, I use distressed steel as the basis of my pieces. It can take up to 3 months to build up the rust and patina patterns on each piece of steel and then up to 12 hours of surface work to strip and reveal the damage done. Once I have my surface, the image is printed to the metal with various techniques, and then float mounted on stained wood using distressed bolts that maintain the aged and worn appearance. Through this process I am able to create an emotional connection to the image, and produce a piece authentic enough to look as though it had been stolen from the scene and presented to the viewer as an artifact on display. The work is modern and industrial, but is equally at home among antiques and more traditional settings.
To View Robert’s Work Click: Here
Ryan Metzger - Ryan is a representational painter working in oil and acrylic and currently serves as Assistant Manager at Hayley Gallery. A Westerville native, he earned his BFA in Studio Art from Denison University in 2023, studying painting, ceramics, woodworking, animation, and printmaking. In 2022, he spent four months in Aix-en-Provence at The Leo Marchutz School of Painting, where daily portrait, still-life, and plein air studies in a traditional French atelier deepened his connection to nature and Impressionist techniques. Now based in Columbus, Ryan continues to create observational work rooted in those principles. He has been with Hayley Gallery since August 2023 and also works with its custom-framing partner, The Archive in German Village.
