Shilo Ratner

STATEMENT

In my art practice, I strive to create paintings that evoke an acute awareness and centered meditative state towards our daily surroundings using a tight geometric abstract visual language. Often using a horizon line to make a reference point for the viewer, my paintings evolve with varied opaque and translucent layers of acrylic paint on canvas. While I create a time-based visual context for my paintings with sunrises and sunsets in color choices and titles, my hyper-realistic execution of stillness through a tight complex network of lines and forms indicates an almost suffocating state of our present-day reality. I strive to present a perceptual consciousness through the spatial organization of architectural and natural landscapes with great attention to the foundation of my colors. While easily interpreted as geometric abstract landscape paintings, I hope that the intensity of my compositions demands unorthodox attention from the viewer to invest in a centered and calm vision within the chaotic times of our present day.

BIO

I grew up in the beach town of Brant Rock, MA. I obtained a degree in design from Curry College in Milton, MA. Furthered my studies out east at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston as well as at Massachusetts College of Art. My pursuit of a career in painting brought me out west to San Francisco where I earned an MFA in painting from the Academy of Art University.

My lifelong pursuit has been for a deeper understanding of truths in spiritual traditions and the common thread that unites humanity. After earning my MFA, I traveled internationally with intention, intrigued by the symbols and practices of many religions. During my travels, I visited Buddhist and Hindu temples in Malaysia and Indonesia. In a rural village in Brazil, I had a powerful shift in consciousness that inspired my series “From Within”. Returning to contemporary life between these significant journeys has allowed me to express work that is about the “whole” experience vs only focusing on one or the other as my approach embraces various spiritual and cultural experiences through a visual language.

In 2009, I was recognized with an award juried by Bay Area Figurative artist William Theophilus Brown in a San Francisco-based exhibition. In, 2016 I was once again presented with an award at the “The 105th Exhibition”, Mystic Museum of Art by Jurors Darby Cardonsky and Will Lustenader in Connecticut. In, 2020 I was awarded Best in show juried by Geaninne Gutierrez-Guimaraes the Associate Curator, the Guggenheim Museum. My paintings have been selected for exhibitions by jurors Theophilus Brown, Rita Gonzalez, Dore Ashton, Dean Sobel, and Donna Seagar. I’ve also exhibited in museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art, Mystic Museum of Art, and The Slater Memorial Museum. My paintings can be found in a myriad of private art collections in the United States and abroad.

Currently, I live in New Haven, CT, and am an active practicing artist in the New York Metropolitan area.

EXHIBITIONS/SHOWS/COMMISSIONS

2024
Winterlude Group Show, Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
2023
Celebrating Women Group Show, George Billis Gallery
Affordable Art Fair Stockholm
Now is the Moment Solo Show, New Haven, CT
Burton Young Solo Show, Greenwich, CT
Perceptual Consciousness Solo Show, Claire Carino Contemporary, Boston, MA
2022
Solo Show, Sorelle Gallery, Westport, CT
Claire Carino Contemporary Summer Expo, Boston, MA
Affordable Art Fair, New York, NYC
Art Expo Dallas, Dallas, TX

2021
“Summer Abstraction”, Solo Show, Locust Grove Estate Museum, Poughkeepsie, NY
Member Show, Artist Alliance, Santa Fe, NM
Bendheim Gallery, Art to the Avenue, Greenwich, CT

“Design Concepts”, Tailored Home, Greenwich, CT

2020
“Oteaferia”, Solo Show, Mexico City, Mexico
SeeMe “Art Takes Armory”, New York, NY
“Centered & Calm”, Solo Exhibition, Lawn Club, New Haven, CT
“Full of Possibility”, Solo Exhibition, DaSilva Gallery, New Haven, CT

2019

Mika Gallery, Group Exhibition, Tel Aviv, Israel
Putnam and Mason, Art to the Avenue, Greenwich, CT

Bryant Street Gallery, Discovery and Depth Solo Exhibition, Palo Alto, CA

The Bendheim Gallery, Greenwich Art Society, 102nd Annual Juried Exhibition, Greenwich, CT Juror: Megan Fontanella

Ely Center of Contemporary Art, “Our Bodies Our Selves”, New Haven, CT

EDUCATION

2003-06 MFA Painting, Academy of Art University, San Francisco, California 1996-00 BA Design, Curry College, Milton, Massachusetts

TAGS

#geometric #artist #landscapes #minimalism #abstractions #abstract, #painting #geometricart #kunst