Ryan Ward

One Small Town Sky, The Big Top, 24 x 24, oil on canvas

Big Double Dip Dipper. Over Here 25 x 19, acry on canvas and wood.

Have to, Have to Catch All to Win, Have to Match a 2 win, h 2 track all, Map All, 24 x 24 acry on panel

Super Saddle Sore, 54 x 54 oil on canvas

Something about a barrel of laughs under the bleachers 10.5 x 12" acrylic and paper on wood

Old Timey Pie Toss, 8x8, oil on panel

The site of the execut of Loncoln's conspirators is a tennis court,11 x 14.5 , acrylic on canvas

Little Blue in the Mouth, 17x13", acrylic on panel

The Ball Pits, 20 x 20", acrylic on wood

Artist Statement

RYAN WARD is the Curator of The Maslow Collection in Scranton, Pennsylvania and the Owner/ Director of The Ruffed Grouse Gallery in Narrowsburg, New York. He specializes in Contemporary, Folk, and Self-Taught Art and has curated a diversity of exhibitions involving regional, national, and international artists. Ward holds an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His painting and sculptural work utilizes cowboy and circus references to explore ideas around myth-making, belief, and historical record-keeping. As the recipient of the Murray Dessner Memorial Travel Prize, he executed an in-depth investigation of curatorial methods employed at American historical sites. This research has led to various lectures as well as recent solo and group exhibitions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Italy. Ward has taught at Studio Arts College International in Florence, Italy, and currently teaches Arts Administration and Studio courses at Marywood University.

Ryan states: “Ring toss. Whac-A-Mole. Skee-ball. Hot Shot. Water guns. Guess-my-weight. This was how I earned my first paycheck. Baking under the summer sun and enduring the daily barrage of “critiques” from sore losers, or the occasional impact of a half-eaten hot dog, my fellow 14-year-olds and I weren’t actually all that amused by working at an amusement park. At a certain point, I began to ask myself - what exactly is happening here? The best that I could come up with was that it was one giant social and psychological experiment. It was a place where the willing participant entered into an unwritten agreement to suspend disbelief. It was one where groups watched each other act out fantastical stories, either for pleasure, for a chance to escape everyday reality, or for a chance to simply win. Fact became fiction, fiction became fact, and the park-goer didn’t really care. Glossy, colorful, tasty things were for sale, and they were along for the ride.

This may sound oddly similar to how we are currently watching our lives unfold. Political, social, educational, and media platforms all seem to increasingly require us to strain our eyes to identify a truth from a lie, an honest gesture from fabrication, or a good-faith intention from sheer manipulation. The ground beneath our feet is becoming more and more unstable and our path more disorienting. As we try to find our way out of this hall of mirrors, we are beginning to wonder why the funhouse doesn’t seem very fun at all.”