Ryan McGinness was born in 1972 in Virginia Beach, VA
He lives and works in New York, NY

His work consists of an amalgam of icons and symbols. Drawing from his background in the design industry, Ryan McGinness’s work resolves the clinical graphic aesthetics of media as vast, contemplative fields of intimate meditation. It incorporates strong social commentary on iconography, language, and historical and contemporary symbolism. His graphic drawings and personal iconography are replicated, recontextualized, and materialized infinitely throughout his densely layered paintings.

Born and raised in the surf and skate culture of Virginia Beach, Virginia, McGinness moved on to study at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as an Andrew Carnegie Scholar. During college, he worked at the Andy Warhol Museum as a curatorial assistant, which inevitably influenced his proclivity toward pop and graphic aestheticism. Known for his original extensive vocabulary of graphic drawings that use the visual language of public signage, corporate logos, and contemporary iconography, McGinness creates paintings, sculptures, and environments and fabricate the iconography of contemporary experience as spiritual and timeless.

McGinness’s work can be found in such art institutions as The Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY; The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA; the Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinatti, OH, and private and corporation collections including the Neuberger Berman Collection, New York, NY; Cobra to Contemporary/The Brown Family Collection, and the Charles Saatchi Collection, London.