Bio
Born in London, England, Kate Ryan is a painter based in the greater Los Angeles area, California. Her color-driven abstract works draw on the natural world, music, writing, and meditation, weaving together a personal visual language of marks and shapes. Hovering between abstraction and figuration, her paintings explore themes of place, transcendence, ambiguity, vulnerability, and growth, often reflecting her lived experiences.
Kate studied at Central Saint Martins, and Middlesex University London.
Artist’s Statement
I create layered, abstracted landscapes inspired by memory, emotion, and the natural world. Through soft forms, earthy palettes, and symbolic shapes—such as circles, horizons, and nestled spaces—I explore the quiet tension between presence and absence, observation and imagination. My paintings are meditative spaces that invite reflection and stillness, grounded in a desire to connect deeply with beauty and the spirit of place.
I embrace improvisation and the absence of a defined image or map, to begin with. I allow the artwork to evolve through spontaneous decisions and reactions between colors, marks, and shapes. As I add and subtract layers, the painting evolves in response to the moment, much like an irresistible puzzle that takes shape as I work. Through this cycle of building and collapse, an image eventually emerges and takes command of the painting.
Exhibitions
2025
Beverly Hills Art Show - May + Oct
Coronado Art Festival - May
2024
Newport Beach Art In The Park - Sept
2023
Transforming Loss - Co-Curation with Gabrielle b. Mclean. - She/ They Gallery, Santa Ana, Nov
The Other Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA - Sept
Acts of Liberation - Curated Exhibition during Fall edition of The Other Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA, Sept
Solo: Moments Of Being - She/ They Gallery, Santa Ana - April
Solo: Waterscapes - Holiday, Costa Mesa - March-May
Pilgrimage - She/ They Gallery, Santa Ana, CA - Feb/ Mar
Hear Their Story - She/ They Gallery, Santa Ana, CA - Jan
Group Show- Laguna Art Gallery, Mission Viejo, CA - Jan
2022
Newport Beach Art In The Park - Newport Beach, CA
Makers Markets - The LAB Anti Mal, CA
Art Venture - Samueli Theatre, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Costa Mesa, CA
2021
The Artist’s Studio - Balboa Inn Resort, Newport Beach, CA
Surfing the Pacific Rim - Huntington Beach Art Center, CA
2019
Landscape - Huntington Beach Art Center, CA
2018
Centered on the Center - Huntington Beach Art Center, CA
2017
Centered on the Center - Huntington Beach Art Center, CA
Love Today - Curation, Location 1980 Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA
Open Studios - Location 1980 Gallery and Artist Studios, Costa Mesa, CA
2016
Art Start - Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA
Open Studios - Location 1980 Gallery and Artist Studios, Costa Mesa, CA