Ryan Travis Christian

b. 1983, Oakland, CA
Lives and works in Chicago, IL

Ryan Travis Christian’s idiosyncratic style of drawing densely layers graphite pencil to create graphic images featuring amorphous characters including condoms, brick houses, and Mickey Mouse. Inspired by Ub Iwerks, George Condo and the Hairy Who, he renders his figures in both high contrast and slow motion, inserting them into hazy sfumato-esque landscapes and skewed spaces alike that repeatedly melt and coalesce. Christian’s surreal personal narratives are fueled by the absurdity of life in his small, suburban-Chicago hometown with recurring themes of fires, wheelchairs, heavy petting, fireworks, drugs and alcohol, rivers, boats, beaten-up cars, death, homes, speed bumps, and cats.