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My practice is grounded in the dissection of intimacy and humanity beyond solely the physical or romantic. The abstract nature of intimacy, grandiose concepts about humanness, and the simultaneous literalness and subjectivity of language exist in flux of one another as being either acutely honest or habitually contrived. Utilizing prose, poetry, and figuration through both representational and abstracted form, these tense and dichotomous relationships, and our conscious and unconscious responses to them provide the scaffolding through which I engage and create my work; How do we say things without speaking and when does (and doesn’t) language hold space for feelings and ideas unexplainable?
My material language echoes these ideas via poetic mediums such as metal, plaster, wood, and oil paint. It is my hope that those who engage with my work leave reminded of their humanity and our shared intricacies and nuances.
Ryan Michael is a New York City based multidisciplinary artist practicing in oil painting, printmaking, sculpture, and poetry, currently pursuing a BFA in Fine Arts at
the Fashion Institute of Technology.