Ryan Chesla

Please Note: This artist is currently on vacation through 7/15/2023. All pieces are noted as NOT available but they will be upon the artist's return.

Ryan Chesla (°1971, Munich, Germany) makes photos, sculptures and mixed media artworks. By taking daily life as subject matter while commenting on the everyday aesthetic of middle class values, Chesla seduces the viewer into a world of ongoing equilibrium and the interval that articulates the stream of daily events. Moments are depicted that only exist to punctuate the human drama in order to clarify our existence and to find poetic meaning in everyday life.

His photos establish a link between the landscape’s reality and that imagined by its conceiver. These works focus on concrete questions that determine our existence. By emphasizing aesthetics, he often creates work using creative game tactics, but these are never permissive. Play is a serious matter: during the game, different rules apply than in everyday life and even everyday objects undergo transubstantiation.

His works are characterized by the use of everyday objects in an atmosphere of middleclass mentality in which recognition plays an important role. By exploring the concept of landscape in a nostalgic way, he investi...

2013 - 2015, Master of Fine Arts, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington

2013, Encaustic Photography, The Photography Center NW, Seattle, Washington

2012 - 2010, Bachelors of Arts, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington

2010 - 2008, Associate of Arts, Seattle Central College, Seattle, Washington

Selected Group Exhibitions

2019 - Palm Springs Art Museum, Metamorphosis, March 2019 through April 2019, Palm Desert, California

2019 - Vachon Gallery, Courageous Arts Leadership in Turbulent Times, Seattle, Washington

2018 - Stephen Baumbach Studio & Gallery, 1st Annual Palm Springs Photography Exhibition, May 2018, Palm Springs, California

2018 - Fusion Gallery, 2nd Annual International Juried Black & White Art Exhibition, May 2018, Palm Springs, California

2018 - Fusion Gallery, 3rd Annual International Juried Landscapes Art Exhibition, April 2018, Palm Springs, California

2018 - University of California, Riverside, University of California, Riverside & Palm Springs Art Museum's Artists Council Exhibition, Palm Desert, California

2018 - Desert Art Center, 2018 Palm Springs Annual Juried Art Show, Bold & Bright, Palm Springs, California

2017 - 2018 - Art Is, Inc. Gallery, Daily Observations: California Selections, Palm Desert, California

2017 - Palm Springs Art Museum, 48th Annual Juried Artists Council Exhibit, Palm Springs, California

2017 - Terry Hastings Gallery/University of California, Riverside, Salton Sea: An Artistic Discussion, Palm Desert, California

2017 - Fusion Art, Black & White Int...