Bio
Ryan Nord Kitchen’s inherently virtuoso landscape paintings pay homage to the Early American Modernists; Milton Avery, Charles Burchfield, Marsden Hartley to cite a few. Shuttling between abstraction and representation, their canvases’ inclination toward pure gesture is refuted by references to the natural world, both archetypal and impressionistic. Through the rhythmic play and integration of these fragmentary linear and planar ele- ments, Kitchen cultivates a contemporary and stylized vernacular all their own. Kitchen’s practice resides somewhere between drawing and painting. Through the use of flattened volumes, shallow depths of field, and the tension they casts between high formal contrasts (figure and ground, surface and depth), Kitchen at once advocates for the continuation of modernism's distrust of mimesis, while acknowledging abstraction's need for realism as counterpoint. If seemingly improvised, each of their marks is indeed measured, informed by both their own experiences of nature and a keen understanding of formal composition. Cumulatively, the works construct a lexicon of wintry vistas, moonlit gardens, sunlit pathways and river views, that encourages a reverent, if idiosyncratic, reading of the American landscape. Ryan Nord Kitchen (1988. Minnesota, USA), obtained an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014, in addition to holding a BA from Luther College. Their works have been presented internationally at The Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, New York, The Galleri Jacob Bjørn in Aarhus, Denmark; Andrea Festa Fine Art, Rome, Italy, Taymour Grahne, London, and Lulu, Mexico City. Kitchen lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Website
https://www.ryannordkitchen.com/