About

Bio Ryan Hill is a Los Angeles-born, Tucson-based artist who creates drawings through thematic series and site-specific installations; sometimes including performances or projections. He focuses on the interplay between imagery and language, as well as subjectivity and popular culture, working within a "world-building" genre.

Hill was introduced to interdisciplinary thinking as a UC Santa Cruz undergraduate through the History of Consciousness program, a department focusing on intellectual trends in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. This stimulated an interest in technology, sociology, and philosophy which he continued to pursue at UCLA's Film & Television Graduate Program and later at Cal Arts Graduate Studio Arts Program.

After gaining a masters in both areas of study, Hill became deeply involved with the Los Angeles art and performance scene. During this time, he found his voice as a collaborator, working on site-specific installations and performances that toured national nonprofit, academic, and museum venues. He had ongoing collaborations with other artists; including John Fleck, the movement collective SHRIMPS (Pam Casey, Steve Nagler, Martin Kersels, Gail Youngquist, Weba Garretson), artist Liz Young, Johanna Went, and choreographer Melinda Ring. After moving to New York City, Hill continued a performance practice at local non-profits and alternative venues working with writer Nancy Agabian, performer Laura Meyers, artist Pablo Helguera and dancer Boaz Barkan. In Washington DC, he reconciled with a studio practice by joining the gallery  Civilian Art Projects and creating drawing series. Ryan's drawing installations and video projections have been shown nationally with some work traveling internationally as part of group shows.

Drawn to Death, 12" x16, gouache, color pencil, and graphite on paper

Artist Statement Drawing is my primary medium, best representing my thinking process. It's spontaneous and conceptual, able to record a steady stream of associations.

My materials and techniques vary from series to series depending on the project. Drawings go through a machine-like process to hide my hand or a gestural spontaneity to show it. I'm interested in making a direct address to the viewer.

The Imaginary is the queer core of my sensibility; something allowing me to escape social constructs while crystallizing personal truths. Projects can start with thematic research, automatic drawing, collage, or word associations. Its an intuitive process, finding a personal poetic from a mix of cultural references.

Through my past in performance, I understand art venues as theatrical spaces, energized by the public's wonder. I am especially interested in spaces like wunderkammer, circus sideshows, and flea markets; places where science, politics, metaphysics, and popular culture intersect through objects. In these third spaces we wrestle with disorientation to interpret what we're seeing. My drawings are often shown in mixed groups or installations to encourage viewers to make nonlinear connections.

My work is both serious and humorous, finished and unfinished, authentic and kitsch. My drawings are objects of curiosity, a kind of bewitchment, relying on artifice to provoke the smallest inkling of something real we can hold onto.