As a person once entrapped in an abusive relationship, I tend to see manipulation and predatory behaviors everywhere. As a vegan, I am further bothered by society’s impetus to prey upon “the weak”: animals, nature, the poorer classes of people…

My attempts to cope with a number of terrible experiences led me to begin a series of allegorical oil paintings and recycled media compositions featuring vulnerable characters trying to escape similarly dire circumstances: – a blind horse, – a butterfly with tattered wings, – a lost cat… The paintings have an implied narrative drawn from “a deep reservoir of assorted traumas”. They tie in with one another so that a story seems to unfold from one to the next. This is a story of consumption and abuse, without any of the blood or bruising, with “fun” & colorful terrors replacing the real world kind.

When interesting ideas appear in these paintings, I explore them in 3-dimensions with discarded media. By shining a strong light on a sculpture, I can better conceptualize how it should fit in a painting: how the light should look, how the shadows should be cast… The paintings and sculptures inform each other in this way. I’ll also “ground” the fanciful environments in a sense of reality by painting landscapes en plein air whenever possible. There are warm, serene, scenic places & there are dark paths you take when wandering alone.
You will see it in paintings & in sculptures.

Resume:
Ry An | ?????
@ryancanvas

2020 Monmouth Museum’s: Emerging Artists Series: “the Woods”, solo show
2020 Montclair Vegan: ‘Forests, Lakes, & Rivers’, solo show 2019 “6th Highlands Juried Art Exhibit” at the Morris Museum – 3rd Overall 2019 Site: Brooklyn: “Animals”
2019 the Banana Factory: “the Art of Storytelling”
2019 Deep Space Gallery: “9 Lives” – Arts Exclusive Cat Show
2019 – Fine, Contemporary, & Asian Arts Advisor – Tenmoku Auction House
2019 LITM (Jersey City), Monthly Exhibitor 2018 Center for Contemporary Art : “2018 International Juried Exhibition” 2018 Autumn 2018 ESKFF (Eileen S Kaminsky Family Foundation) Residency: “the Woods”
Allegories of Predation & Abuse Told w/ Animal Characters:
Oil on Canvas, & Recycled Media Sculpture
2018 “Historic Medford Plein Air Show 2018”
2018 Trenton City Museum: “Ellarslie Open 35” – Dick Blick & Jack Richeson Awards
2018 “39th Annual Monmouth Museum Juried Art Exhibit”
2017 Monmouth Museum Watercolor Exhibition
2017 Plein Air Exhibit of the Trenton Museum at Ellarslie
2016 – 2020 Assistant to numerous artists at Mana Contemporary, Jersey City
2015 Began making Salvaged & Recycled media sculptures
2015 – 2016 ‘Long’ Hiatus from 2-dimensional art, due to a violent assault while painting
2012 – 2015 MFA candidate at the Graduate School of Illustration, American Academy of Art University, w/Focus on Animals & Creatures, Ink & Watercolor
2012 Returned to the US (following repeated threats)
2002 – 2012 Est. 700 – 1,000 Landscape Paintings done in rural/ remote parts of Japan
2001 Died (briefly)
1977 Born