About | ransome

About

Ransome was born in North Carolina and moved to a New Jersey suburb as a teenager. He graduated from Pratt Institute and was a tenured professor in the School of Visual Performing Arts at Syracuse University before retiring to pursue his dreams of being a studio artist. He received his MFA in Studio Arts from Lesley University.

Artist Statement

My artwork centers on my African-American lineage, which is traced back to sharecroppers of the American South who migrated to Northern cities along the East Coast. My pictorial narratives are personal, yet the symbols I use are universal and interplay with larger social, racial, ancestral, economic, and political histories that inform our nation to this day. The history of my family is the history of black Americans, which is the history of all of North America.

In my works, I often combine acrylic paint with an array of found, made, and purchased papers. The materials I use are conceptual statements on this legacy of an often-overlooked portion of society that made something out of nothing.

Both my representational and abstract works incorporate a variety of symbols, patterns, and marks to create powerful images filled with the rhythmic properties of music that weave throughout my oeuvre. Born in a generation infused by soul and R&B music, I grew up hearing rap music that freely sampled the music of my childhood, mixing and recomposing these songs to create rhythms befitting to hip hop music. In my work, my 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, and creating.

While made of the energy of contemporary culture, my work is also influenced by Abstract Expressionism and draws from the soulfulness of the quilts from the women of Gee’s Bend. For me, there is a visual rhythm to layering these antipodes: found versus purchased objects, figures versus abstract, paint versus paper, busy versus quiet.

My work aims to imbue each piece with a lyrical yet authentic resilience borne of limited resources and frugality that speaks to the struggle and hope, pain, joy, and soul of folks in the black community.

Born in North Carolina

Lives and works in New York

EDUCATION

MFA Lesley University Cambridge, MA

BFA Pratt Institute Brooklyn , NY

AWARDS and GRANTS

2024 Silver Medal in the Innovation category from the Contemporary Collage magazine

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

COLLECTIONS

The Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

The Dorsky Museum of Fine Arts, New Paltz, NY

University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

Petrucci Family Foundation’s Collection of African American Art, Asbury, NJ

RESIDENCIES

2025 Yaddo Residency Saratoga Springs, NY 4 weeks

Jan. 22th - Feb18th

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

" The Bitter and the Sweet" Geary Gallery, Millerton, NY

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 Raleigh, (CAM Raleigh) NC

"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 Exhibitions

2024 All Figured Out, a group exhibition of paintings that center on the human figure.

Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY April 26th - June 16th 2024

2023 Art on Paper 2023: The 47th Exhibition, The Weatherspoon Art Museum September 2nd - April 6th 2nd Floor: The Bob & Lissa Shelley McDowell Gallery

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

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 "An Unpredictable Time & Place", MASS MoCA, North Adam, MA

"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 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, Calvin 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 -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