In this exhibition, Lynch focuses on two bodies of graphite drawings: his paper series, capturing crumpled lined paper, and his city series, depicting various urban scenes. Though different in subject, each is unified by their hyperrealist style and small composition. Further contributing to the drawings’ photo-realism, his compositions are squarely cropped and balanced, almost like a camera lens finding it’s ideal frame.

When asked about the crumpled paper series, Lynch states: “The paper series began after…thinking of those intermittent points in life, something perhaps relevant to everyone’s experience this year. I thought of the moment romanticized in film and television when a frustrated writer sits at a typewriter. The writer gives up on an idea and discards paper from the typewriter. Then, after re-evaluation, the writer picks up the wrinkled paper and unfolds it with something new to contribute. The notebook paper [in my drawings] symbolizes these ideas of reflection, renewal and perseverance, however significant.”

The idea of reflection continues in his cityscape work, which depicts scenes from all over Richmond, including Manchester, Scotts Addition, the Fan, and some from the Northside and Southside. The artist explains these locations, stating: “I’m interested in scenes that are absent from the celebrated, and absent from that which we intuitively glamorize. I’m fascinated by the somewhat mundane spaces and places because these are the ones we all inhabit the most. The city series began after returning to Richmond after many years. I wanted to jostle with my revisiting familiar spaces and unfamiliar spaces in my ever-changing hometown with new eyes. I wanted to depict sights of the city that are so familiar that they are unnoticed or even invisible.”