Ryan has built up a formidable reputation as a powerful contemporary painter of Industrial and Maritime subjects. His bold realism combined with expressionistic brushwork, transports you into a world of arresting detail and mechanised splendour.
Born in 1978, he studied at the Glasgow School of Art, where he graduated in 2001. He has now won many distinguished awards, including four from the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts.
His inspiration comes from Britain’s industrial heritage and its connection between man and the sea. In Glasgow alone shipbuilding provided work for 70,000 men in more than 50 yards spread along 11 miles of quayside. But today these yards sit empty, a shadow of their former self. The advancements made in technology and design methods superseded the old, and made once important skills and craftsmanship redundant. This is what drives Ryan as he looks to capture and remind people of how important this work force was in the development of the modern world.
“There will be kids growing up near the Clyde who – if you didn’t tell them about the shipbuilding – probably wouldn’t know what used to be there,” says Ryan. “That’s one of the things that drives me.”
“I want to make sure there’s always going to be something out there that’s evocative and will remind people what was there in previous generations. What Glasgow and Britain was famous for. World famous at that.”
L.S. Lowry, Frank Brangwyn, George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Claude Monet, Sir Muirhead Bone, Joseph Mallord William Turner are just some of the artists who Ryan has taken influence from. His work can be found in collections around the world, including Geneva, Zurich, Vancouver, Belgium, Tasmania, Boston, Utrecht, Tokyo, and Dubai.
Eton Contemporary: Caledonian Show, Chelsea Art Fair, 20/21 London, Bristol Art Fair, Affordable art fair (Hampstead)
Blackheath Gallery mixed spring show
Gallery Heinzel Aberdeen mixed summer show
Red Rag Gallery mixed summer show
Arteries Gallery mixed summer show
Eton Contemporary: Caledonian Show, Solo show, Bristol Art Fair, Chelsea Art Fair, 20/21 London, Affordable art fair (Battersea & Hampstead), Edinburgh Art Fair
Mabel Mackinley award - RGI 151st Annual Exhibition
Gallery Heinzel Aberdeen joint show
The Biscuit factory joint show Arteries gallery Glasgow joint show
Red Rag Gallery mixed summer show
Gallery Heinzel Aberdeen winter show
John Green winter show
Many group exhibitions in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Paisley, London fringes and London with various institutions and commercial galleries
Aspect Prize, Paisley
Winner - City of Glasgow Award, RGI 148th Annual Exhibition
Aspect Prize, Paisley
1st place award - East Ayrshire open art competition
Fellowship award - Glasgow art club group exhibition
Paisley Art Institute drawing competition
Winner - Fellowship award, RGI 147th Annual Exhibition
Winner - The David Cargill Award, RGI 146th Annual Exhibition
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