Ryan McGinness b. 1972

Ryan McGinness grew up in Virginia Beach, where he became inspired by the local surfing and skateboarding culture. McGinness studied at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh as an Andrew Carnegie scholar. He also interned at the Andy Warhol Museum as a curatorial assistant.

McGinness was given his first solo-exhibition in 2000, and exhibited a show entitled "Aesthetic Comfort" at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2008. He has also been included in various group exhibitions at the MoMA, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the MCA Denver, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo and the Weatherspoon Art Museum in North Carolina. His work has been featured in Art in America, Art News and The New York Times.

The artist draws inspiration from biomorphic forms, Surrealism and punk aesthetics. His paintings and sculptures overlap icons and symbols, which he says are "composed of many units of meaning." He goes further to state, "I'm trying to communicate complex and poetic concepts with a cold, graphic and authoritative visual vocabulary.  I concentrate on shape, line, color and composition to communicate within simplified picture planes. As such, the work resides somewhere between abstraction and representation." His work deeply resonates with the new generation of graphic designers.

 Ryan McGinness has work featured in the permanent collections of the MoMA, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the MCA San Diego, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the MUSAC in Spain and the Misumi Collection in Japan.

Related categories: Silkscreen/Screenprint, Patterns, Calligraphic, Engagement with Mass Media, Popular Culture, Contemporary Pop, Work on Paper, Advertising and Brands, United States, Painting.