Ryan Swanson is an artist, designer and teacher.

Art:

I conduct scenes wherein objects and bodies relate in unexpected ways. It is now common creed that identity is the product of constructed contexts, and that style or taste are the products of someone’s idea of identity. Perhaps we are so entangled in this mess of identification with our surrounds that the relationships between our self and our context cannot be properly ordered or indexed. Instead of trying to separate or classify, I extend the rival concepts of utility and embellishment beyond exaggeration. What if our limbs were solely used to carry around our clothing? When do gestures metastasize into decorations and spaces re-organize into patterns? By re-organizing the common relationships between gestures, patterns, decorations, and spaces, my work prompts a newfound perception of ‘good taste.’ Commodities aggressively flirt with fractioned bodies; precious goods secrete bodily forms; limbs accrete into polymorphous structures reminiscent of furniture; the figure penetrates the ground; the ground digests the figure.

Resume:

Education
Master of Fine Arts School of the Art Institute of Chicago	Bachelor of Fine Arts Savannah College of Art And Design
Selected Exhibitions
Shelburn Museum White Box Gallery Lump Gallery Estudiotres Booster and Seven Betty Rymer Gallery	MetroSpace Gallery Rowland Contemporary LACDA Hyde Park Art Center Gallery 1926 Hellenic Museum	Evanston Arts Center Chicago Cultural Center Threewalls Gallery Gallery Uno Gallery 312 Tiffany & CO.
Selected Client List
Studio One Dance Theare Currently Casting Choice Deals New City Jason Foumberg Matt Stolle Alfedena Gallery	Nice and Fit Gallery Supply Chain Solutions Office Max Westwood College Brown Triangle Gallery SAIC DPM Advertising	Taylor Bruce Associates Silverlining PBS Skyline Reality Planet Studio
Selected Teaching Positions
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Adjunct Faculty	Westwood College Program Director School of Design Full-Time Design Instructor	Hyde Park Art Center Workshop Instructor

*contact me for a full resume

Teaching:

As an educator I feel a responsibility to acknowledge the reality of our economy and the need for artists to make a living after school. I bring my own dual studio practice into the classroom by advocating practical design skills while acknowledging the importance of both art history and experimentation to the advancement of anyone’s creative practice. I believe there are more roles for artists in our society than we currently acknowledge. My aim in teaching is to help students discover these new roles that unitize their personal experiences and empower their point of view in a practice that can be sustained over a lifetime.