My practice is grounded in the dissection of intimacy and humanity beyond solely the physical or romantic. The ephemerality and the intimate experience of human existance, that is simply being alive, presents us with innumerable mysteries and unknowns.
As we adopt and participate in societal constructs such as race, gender, sexuality, and religion, these relationships become increasingly more complex-- this is what my work seeks to explore. Employing poetry, prose, and figuration through both representational and abstracted form, explorations of our intense and nuanced relationships to our fellow human and the divine, as well as our conscious and unconscious responses to them provide the scaffolding through which I engage and create my work; How do we communicate without speaking and when does (and doesn’t) communication 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, photography, and poetry, currently pursuing a BFA in Fine Arts with a minor in Art History at the Fashion Institute of Technology.
Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia with roots in Seattle, Washington
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