Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA, 1977
Lives and works in New York.
Working in whatever medium best suits his message, Ryan Brown has produced performances, paintings, sculptures, photographic series, and installations that both honor and interrogate modern and contemporary art and artists, as well as the historical narratives, manifestos, and market systems upon which they rely. He uses satire and mimicry to send up what he perceives as the preciousness, arrogance, and politics underlying the presentation and consideration of art. In a series of slumped, intentionally ragged-looking mixed media paintings, he displays marred versions of modern works taken from art history books, whose materials and mode of production he deliberately mislabels. Brown has also photographed and filmed himself performing as such famous artists as Jackson Pollock, calling attention to the frequent blurring of truth and myth in the record of an artist’s life and work.
Ryan Brown was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania in 1977. He studied Fine Arts at SVA (School of Visual Arts) in New York. After graduating with honors in 2006 he was invited to participate in the European Exchange Academy in Beelitz, Germany. Ryan Brown has participated in multiple solo and group exhibitions.