Ryan Sullivan (1983) is a painter who lives and works in New York City. Sullivan’s paintings reflect his dynamic and constantly-evolving mode of abstraction, with each painting standing as a physical record of its own creation – both embodying and describing material flows and physical processes.

“Using natural ventilation, Sullivan, who studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, embraces the ways air temperature affects the chemical reactions that make his signature abstract works come wildly to life, adding an extra element of chance to an already unpredictable method: With a canvas laid flat, he begins each piece by gradually pouring layers of paint—whether water or oil based, fine quality or commercial—one on top of another. Sullivan then tilts the canvas, thick with the mixture, this way and that, letting time and gravity do their part. Drying at varying rates, the multicolor strata wrinkle, crack, and coagulate, bringing to mind a dizzying raft of associations, from topographical maps to peeling factory walls.”

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Selected Group Exhibitions

Abstract / Not Abstract, Presented by Larry Gagosian & Jeffrey Deitch, Miami, FL, 2017
Satellite TV, Tetsouâ€™s Garage, Nikko, Japan
MIDTOWN, Lever House, New York, NY
In The Making, Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, NY, 2016
New Skin, Inaugural exhibition curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon, 2015
Man In The Mirror, Vanharents Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium, 2014