Ryan Dempsey was born in 2002 in Chandler, Arizona. Growing up at the desert’s edge, the warm, vibrant western light would shape how he worked. Being surrounded by painters of this phenomenon and heavily influenced from youth by various art movements out of Los Angeles, light and color became major areas of focus in Ryan's painting early on.  His current work delves into perceptual experience; abstracting fleeting moments of everyday light into hi-res, humorous, surprising, sensuous paintings that invite spectators to look, linger, close one eye, and then close both.  Ryan’s approach to art making is fully analog and “anti-tech,” using traditional materials and ways of making to craft carefully-considered, seductive surfaces that directly oppose the cheap, quick, and artificial seen more and more commonly in the current era.  Ryan's work can be seen both a means of research and response to the altering of society's visual sensibility in the digital age--

Each painting a painstaking record of light, color, and time made permanent through devoted looking and making.  

 

Ryan received his BFA in painting from Boston University in May, 2024 and now lives and works in the Los Angeles area.  If you have any questions for Ryan or would like to set up a studio visit, please fill out the contact form below