Ransome

Ransome is a contemporary artist whose practice is both personal and universal. His work focuses on images that center on his African-American lineage, traced to sharecroppers of the American South who migrated to northern cities along the east coast. The pictorial narratives are personal, yet the symbols used are universal and interplay with larger social, racial, ancestral, economic and political history that speaks to current issues. While combining acrylic paint and an array of found, created and purchased paper, the materials he uses makes conceptual statements and offers commentary on an often overlooked society through the employment of paintings, drawings, and sculptural objects. The history of his family is the history of black Americans, which is the history of all of North America.

He uses representational and abstract works that incorporate symbols, patterns and marks to assimilate powerful images that possess rhythmic properties of music that weave throughout his oeuvre. Born of a generation infused with soul and R&B music, he grew up to the sounds of the sampled beats of rap music, where the music of his childhood was mixed and recomposed to create the rhythms for Hip Hop music. Ransome’s natural instinct is to paint and collage on the same surface, applying the same spontaneity of hip hop deejays and the resourcefulness of rural quilters, who use what is at hand, assembling, collaging , creating, making something out of nothing. His work takes on an energy of contemporary culture, influenced by abstract expressionism while resting on the soulfulness of the quilts from the Women of Gee’s Bend. This practice of layering of images that are antipodes: found versus purchased objects, figures versus abstract, paint versus paper, busy versus quiet. Ransome’s work aims to imbue each piece with the lyrical yet authentic effects of resilience, limited resources, and frugality and explores the struggle and hope, pain, joy and soul of folks in the black community.

Resume

Born in North Carolina
Lives and works in New York

EDUCATION
MFA Lesley University Cambridge, MA
BFA Pratt Institute Brooklyn , NY

AWARDS and GRANTS

2022 Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Grantee
2021 The Hudson Valley Artists Annual Purchase Award from the Dorsky Museum
2004 Dutchess County Arts Council, Art Award for Individual Artist
2000 Winner of the Paterson, NJ Public Library national search depicting
Paterson’s connection to the Underground Railroad
1997 Pratt Institute, Alumni Achievement Award


RESIDENCIES

2024 The Studios of Key West “Peyton Evan Artist Residency”, Key
West FL. 4 weeks
Jan.17th – Feb.14th
2023 The Gibbes Museum of Art, 6-week Residency, Charleston, SC,
May 1st – June11th

Solo Exhibitions

2024. "A Small Nation of Folks", Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC
"A Delicate Balance", Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA

2023 "I Am Who You See I Am", Woodstock Artist Association & Museum
"Up SOUTH: Reflections on the Great Migration by ransome,
Opalka Gallery @ Russell Sage College, Albany, NY
"Home Coming, 26 Love Letters to North Carolina, Contemporary Art Museum
"A Bend in the Road", DAG Gallery @ Golden Belt, Durham, NC
"Singular," Museum of Art, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

2022 "Harmony of Difference" Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA
"From Where I Stand" The Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY
"Say It Loud," Elaine Bailey Augustine Gallery, University of North Alabama, AL

2020 "The View from Here," Crenson Solo Show at Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie,
NY, curated by Ashley James, recently appointed Associate Curator, Contemporary
Art, The Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum

2016 “Known and Unknown,” Community Folk Art Center, Syracuse, NY
“Painting with Paper,” Rhinebeck Library, Rhinebeck, NY

2009 “The Winter in Rhinebeck,” Rhinebeck Savings Bank/Dutchess County Arts
Council, Rhinebeck, NY

2007 “Landscapes and Quilts,” Cunneen Hackett Cultural Center, Poughkeepsie, NY

Group and Juried Exhibitions

2023 47th Art on Paper exhibit, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
CMCA Biennial exhibition, The Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA) January 28th - May 7th
A Living Collection, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art @ New Paltz, September 9 - Ongoing
Corridor Gallery and the Sara Bedrick Gallery
Art on Paper 2023: The 47th Exhibition, The Weatherspoon Art Museum
September 2nd -April 6th
2nd Floor: The Bob & Lissa Shelley McDowell Gallery

2022 What Unites Us: Americana Art from the Permanent Collection May 20 –
September 11, 2022
Is a collection of images celebrating America throughout the 20th century, from
historical moments like V-J Day to iconic events like the Woodstock Music and
Art Fair of 1969. PHOEBE AND BELMONT TOWBIN WING
"Abstracting Reality", Band of Vices, Los Angeles, California, through March
12th Group exhibit with Ernest Shaw, Gordon Shadrach, Greg Bailey, Gregory
Wiley Edwards Khalifa Dieng, Landing Dieme, and Tony Ramos "Claiming the
Narrative", Visual Art Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ, through May
22nd Group exhibit artists include Todd Gray, Mickalene Thomas, Tyler Ballon,
Santiago Galeas, Shona McAndrew, Arcmanoro Niles, Ron Norsworthy,
Philemona Williamson, and others
Putting It Together, Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY, through March 26th
Group exhibit with Suzanne Rees, Pamela Blum, Andrea Burgay, Carole
Kundstadt, Suzanne Ronner, Mark Rosenthal, Joanne Lobotsky, and others

2021 "Black @ Intersection," SECCA, Winston, Salem, North Carolina, Group exhibit
with Jasmine Best, Sloane Siobhan, June Smith, Cameron Ugbodu, Cameron
Ugbodu, Stephanie Brown, and others
"Another American’s Autobiography": Selections from the Petrucci Family
Foundation’s Collection of African American Art at the Sigal Museum in
Easton, PA.

“CLADOGRAM: 2ND at the Katonah Museum’s International Juried Biennial”
With 1,100 artworks submitted by 542 artists from across 21 countries. Yasmeen
Siddiqui chose 58 artists. I had Two works on exhibit.
“Who Really Cares? Hudson Valley Artists 2021” at the Samuel Dorsky Museum
of Art, curated by Helen Toomer. Three of my works are in this exhibit.
"Masterpiece II" group exhibit at Band of Vices Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
Exhibiting artists Kevin Demery, Alicia Piller, Maya Iman, B. Robert Moore,
Bryan Keith Thomas, Calve Clausell, Dread Scott, Najee Dorsey, Steve Prince
and others.
“New Talent” at Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA
Exhibiting artist, Ransome, Davis Arney, Steven J. Cabral, and Shantel Miller
"Legacy & Rupture" group exhibit at City Gallery, New Haven, CT, curated
by interdisciplinary artist and educator Howard el-Yasin. Exhibiting artists
Nathaniel Donnett, Sika Foyer, Merik Goma, James Montford, Ransome, Kamar
Thomas, and Marisa Williamson from May 1 through May 30,
"Kinship: The Inspiration of Artistic Connection” A virtual exhibition with Art
Mid-Hudson, I have brought together a curation of works by a few of the artists
who have, in some way, contributed to my artistic growth. Exhibiting artists
include: Deborah Roberts, Philemona Williamson, Deborah Davidson, Robert
Freeman, Alex Jackson, Jenny Nelson, Ruby Palmer, Peter Rostovsky, Ben
Sloat, Laurel Sparks, Deb Todd Wheeler, and others
"Soul on Art: Ghosts of Africa” Spencer Art Gallery in Tequesta, FL 4 paintings
and six collages. Group exhibit including Leonardo Drew, Adam Pendleton,
William Kwamena-Poh, Kara Walker, and Purvis Young

2020 The SALLY Project, virtual exhibit, East Stroudsburg University, East
Stroudsburg, PA
“I Am My Best Work,” The Painting Center, NYC, a show featuring work by
fifteen BIPOC,
“The Margins,” a national juried exhibition, Barrett Art Center, Poughkeepsie,
NY, judged by Anthony Elms, the Daniel, and Brett Sundheim, chief curator,
ICA Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania.

2019 “Not a Metric Matters,” Syracuse Art Galleries, Syracuse, NY

2018 “Black History Month in Kingston,” The Lace Mill, Kingston, NY

2017 “The Luminous Landscape 2017: 20 Years - 20 Artists,” Albert Shahinian
Gallery, Rhinebeck, NY

2012 Group exhibit at Dutchess Community College, Poughkeepsie, NY

2009 “International Fine Art Auction: A Pride of African Tale,” Locust Grove,
Poughkeepsie, NY

XL Project, Faculty Show, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

“Let them Eat Art,” G.A.S. Visual Art & Performance Space, Poughkeepsie, NY

Books
2023 Quintessential Ransome: A collection of Recent works, published by Sharp Press
2021 The View from Here, A collection of figurative and collages works, published by Sharp Press
2020 Cornrows, A collection of collages, published by Sharp Press