Artist RYAN MCGINNESS lives in Manhattan. His work consists of an amalgam of symbols, personal iconography and graphic drawings, which he replicates, recontextualizes, and materializes infinitely throughout his densely-layered paintings and installations.

I’m trying to communicate complex and poetic concepts with a cold, graphic, and authoritative visual vocabulary. I concentrate on shape, color, and composition within simplified picture planes. As such, the work resides somewhere between abstraction and representation. At the essence of our being is the need to know and the need to understand. Why are we here? What does this mean? I am interested in our desire to make sense of chaos and give meaning to seemingly abstract forms. With my work, interpretations are not absolute, but guided, allowing the viewer to bring to the work his own history, memories, and knowledge to find a personalized meaning. — Ryan McGinness