Ryan Eckert: This is Romance

Bruno David is pleased to present This Is Romance, an exhibition of new works on paper by Phoenix-based painter Ryan Eckert. This will be Eckert’s first exhibition with the gallery. In conjunction with the exhibition, Bruno David Gallery Publications will publish a catalogue of the works with an exhibition history and bibliography.

Ryan Eckert’s paintings explore the relationship between self and his surroundings. Flowers are reoccurring motifs in his work that become figurative with a sense of longing and searching. His paintings display a range of physical beauty that Ryan compares to the impulsive beauty of life’s temptations as well as its overwhelming joys. Each painting is on an individual journey that spans different stages of life, from birth to death and finally ascension. Ryan Eckert’s work is a journal where every page is left open, describing a personal life of faith and spirit, which, though tainted by his own inner desires and ambitions, culminates in a warm, peaceful acceptance of salvation.

Imagination and intuition are at the forefront of Ryan’s paintings. Imagery is not planned through preliminary sketches or concrete ideas; rather, each work begins simply with the foundation of a basic color palette, though that rarely carries through to the finished piece. Ryan Eckert’s use of vibrant colors, patterns, and electric brushwork leave a visual history within the piece. The paintings evolve moment-by-moment and are ultimately a reactive process that leaves the result to chance. Each unexpected, accidental, and uncontrollable imperfection of the painting is fully exposed. The paint feels visceral. Although the process leaves tangible traces, the genesis of many nuances remains both mysterious and ambiguous.

Ryan Eckert was born in 1993 in Belleville, Illinois. He received his BFA from Eastern Illinois University in December of 2015, and then his MA from Eastern Illinois University in 2017. He is currently in his third and final year of the MFA program at Arizona State University, where he also teaches.