Ryan Sweere is an American postmodern artist who specializes in painting, drawing and multi-media assemblage, often appropriating various artistic styles, historical themes & imagery and recycled materials for his one-of-a-kind artworks.
Born in 1976 in Owatonna, Minnesota, he was notably impressed at an early age by the stunning showcase of historical architecture surrounding him. His parents’ large Victorian home, filled with art and antiques, was located just a few blocks away from Louis Sullivan’s National Farmers’ Bank, widely recognized as one of the premier examples of “Prairie School Architecture” in America. Specifically influential to him were the decorative stenciled and terra cotta elements of George Elmslie, stained glass arches of Louis J. Millet and pastoral murals by Oskar Gross, all housed within this architectural wonder.
Ryan’s earliest art creations were inspired by punk rock album covers, screen-printed skateboard graphics, Saturday morning cartoons, graphic novels and psychedelic poster art. He often sourced images from National Geographic and Time Life photography books for learning how to draw and paint. His mother’s love of art nouveau and Alphonse Mucha, as well as teaching him the finer points of calligraphy made a lasting impact on him. In high school, he studied visual art at the MN Perpich Arts High School and thereafter enrolled at the College of Associated Arts in Saint Paul, MN. After his freshman year, in 1995 he studied abroad for ten months in Florence, Italy at Studio Arts Center International (SACI), specifically focusing on art history, oil and fresco painting. Upon returning home, he studied both fine art and graphic design and eventually completed his BFA in Painting at CAA in 1998, which subsequently was known as College of Visual Arts (CVA) until its closure in 2013.
Throughout his early career as a commercial artist, Ryan has worked at advertising firms, a large scale sculpture studio and a traditional animation studio, all the while building an immense body of fine art covering different styles and themes, many of which are held in private collections and public spaces. For the past 20 years, he has worked as a graphic designer for a leading worldwide provider of outdoor turf and landscape equipment.
Ryan currently resides in Eagan, MN with his wife and three daughters in their architecturally significant home designed by John Henry Howe (1913–1997), an American architect who was an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright. His oeuvre continues to evolve in surprising ways and rarely falls into any one genre or medium.