Reynolds Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of The Elixir, an exhibition of new work by Sylvio Lynch III. Marking the artist’s third solo show with the gallery, the exhibition opens on Friday, November 6, 2026 with a public reception from 5 – 7 pm. The show runs through December 22rd .

Over the last several years, Lynch has spent increasingly concentrated periods creating abstract works on paper. The works in this exhibition emerged from a period marked by grief, global strife, and national uncertainty, but they are not intended as expressions of sadness. Instead, Lynch describes the works as “solvent—the elixir,” using the physical act of making as a way to move through difficult moments: “Each line, a breath, each a form a comfort, each composition, an excavation of joy.”

For this body of work, Lynch leaned into a more physical and expansive process. Conscious of his breathing and of the movement of his body across the surface, he moved between light and dark marks. Working on a larger scale than in his previous drawings, with the largest piece measuring approximately three by six feet, Lynch explored dexterity, texture, and expressive movement. 

The resulting drawings are immersive fields of texture, depth, and movement. Lynch hopes they are perceived as “triumphant textural forms of breath, depth, beauty and freedom.” Rather than asking the viewer to locate a specific narrative, the works create an immediate sensory experience, one grounded in the physical movement of mark-making, the ritual of breath, and the freedom of expression.

E12, 2026, Graphite on paper, 15 x 12 inches

Artist Statement 

What began as a habit noting 1-inch drawings over time evolved into an physical exploration of breathing, line, and emotional resonance.  

Each line represents an emotional journey and an expression of time from the lightest touch to the darkest mark, moving, thinking and feeling removed from the context of life events.  Each line, a response to each prior.  Each form, a moment.

Compressed and regulated emotions distilled, clarified and coveted in value with each line.  Each line, a breath. Each a form, a comfort. Each composition, an excavation of joy.

Repetition. Breathing. Movement. Texture. 

The Elixir.

About the Artist

Sylvio Lynch III lives and works in Richmond, Virginia. Lynch has exhibited at Reynolds Gallery, James Wise Gallery, Glave Kocen, and UMBRELLA 2.0/Monochrome Collective in Washington, D.C., with solo exhibitions at Reynolds Gallery in 2020 and 2023. His public art and illustration projects include commissions for Preservation Virginia and the City of Richmond, as well as projects with Hotel Trundle in Columbia, South Carolina, and book illustrations for Tori Explores South Carolina and Tori Finds Colors All Around. Lynch holds a Ph.D. in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University and an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Alabama. 

E16, 2026, Graphite on paper, 36 x 60 inches

Reynolds Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of In Praise of Shadows,  exhibition of new work by Nick McPhail. Marking the artist’s second solo show with the gallery, the exhibition opens on Friday, November 6, 2026 with a public reception from 5 – 7 pm. The show runs through December 22rd .

McPhail’s work looks closely at the relationship between place, perception, and memory. The starting point for this body of work was a particular phenomenon in McPhail’s bedroom. Light coming through the window at night began interacting with a painting on the wall, creating an image that changed throughout the night and into the early morning. McPhail became fascinated by it and began photographing it at different hours. This happened around the time his daughter was born, when he was naturally spending more time in the bedroom and awake at hours he normally would not have been. What began as a simple observation of light became an important influence on the work that followed.

McPhail is interested in the way small moments can accumulate meaning. A particular patch of light on a wall may be insignificant one day and unforgettable years later. A room can become connected to a period of life, and the memory of that room can change the way we see it. For McPhail, the experience he hopes to create is one of nostalgia, “the poetry of boredom,” and what he calls “the incredible overwhelming beauty of the moment.” The paintings reward looking slowly and taking a moment to notice, and give space for details to emerge, and for viewers to bring their own memories and associations to what they see. 

Ultimately, In Praise of Shadows is an invitation to pay closer attention. McPhail hopes that viewers leave the gallery with a heightened awareness of their surroundings and of the small, easily overlooked moments that can give something meaning.

Structure, 2024, Oil on canvas, 14 x 11 inches

Channel, 2025, Oil on canvas, 14 x 11 inches

Opening, 2024, Oil on canvas, 14 x 11 inches

Artist Statement

In Praise of Shadows dives deeply into place, perception, and memory. These ideas affect each other in ways that are difficult to measure, and shape how we experience the spaces around us.

Shadows and light trigger memories, and the rooms we live in become part of the architecture of our psyche. I’m interested in the way the mundane can accumulate meaning over time, such as a patch of light on a wall or the shadow of a tree.

These paintings are an attempt to hold onto the emotional quality and energy that our surroundings leave with us. I’m focused on what happens when our view is obstructed or fragmented, like looking through foliage, or shadows created by a window at night. These interruptions remind me that the way we see is constantly filtered through something, whether that something is feeling, or ever-changing light.

*In Praise of Shadows is a reference to the 1933 essay on aesthetics by author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki.

About the Artist

Nick McPhail (b. 1982) received a BFA with a focus in Painting and Ceramics from Michigan State University in 2006. McPhail has exhibited internationally in San Francisco, Richmond, Paris, Los Angeles, Geneva, Düsseldorf, Arles, Berlin, Stockholm, Chicago, Miami, Seattle, and New York City. His work has also been presented at The Dallas Art Fair, Untitled Art Fair Miami, London Art Fair, Seattle Art Fair, and Future Fair. His work has been featured in New American Paintings, San Diego Magazine, Style Weekly, Literary Hub, The American Scholar, San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications. His work is held in the permanent collections of Morgan Stanley, Cedars-Sinai, and Michigan State University. McPhail lives and works in Los Angeles.

Shadow, 2026, Oil on canvas, 32 x 60 inches