In The Simulation (2024) Original Oil Painting by Ryan Louder

In The Simulation is an original oil painting on canvas, 153 x 110 cm, by London artist Ryan Louder — written text and painted figures competing on the same surface, neither serving as caption for the other.

White chalky lettering covers the canvas in fragments of the phrase 'in the simulation everything and nothing is possible', distributed in multiple scales and orientations. Beneath the writing, a reddish-ochre and grey base carries faces, partial figures and abstract marks that accumulate without resolving into coherent space. At the right a blue circular form holds a clearly rendered face — bald, eyes closed, floating within it as if preserved. At the left a larger face is partially absorbed into the field.

This is part of a body of work shaped by my neurological condition, narcolepsy with REM intrusion hallucinations, clinically confirmed at Guy's Hospital in London. The pareidolic surface, the geometric form constants, the collapsing boundaries between figure and ground are hallucinatory markers — recordings of what REM intrusion looks like, not deliberate technique. The imagery emerges from neurological experience, not metaphor.

I have painted over 2,000 works and sold more than 1,000 originals. Carefully packaged and dispatched by tracked courier — message me with any questions.

Materials used:

Oil

Details:

• Oil painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 153 x 110 x 0.2cm (unframed)
• Ready to hang
• Signed on the front
• Style: Expressive and gestural
• Subject: Abstract and non-figurative