November 26, 2018

Art & Life with Ryan Chesla

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Chesla.

Ryan, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
After years of working in retail management I decided to return to school and pursue something new and something entirely different, a creative career. In 2012 I graduated with my bachelor’s degree from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington focusing on fine art photography. In 2015 I graduated from Seattle University, in Seattle, Washington with my master of fine arts degree in the field of Arts Leadership.

The Master of Fine Arts in Arts Leadership at Seattle University—the first program of its kind on the West Coast—brings together a nationally-renowned faculty in arts leadership with the essential business and management skills necessary to lead various arts organizations. Upon graduation I relocated to Palm Springs, California where I utilized my newfound education and skills as a contributing board member and executive committee member of Palm Springs Art Museum’s fifty-year-old Artists Council. Additionally I have volunteered my time and artistic skills as a teaching artist to a local Coachella Valley nonprofit organization, Tools for Tomorrow, an organization that provides on-site, after school literacy enrichment programs integrating writing, drama, art and music for Coachella Valley elementary school children, at no cost to the children.

Finally, I have spent the past three years focusing on and building my own brand, ryanchesla.com, and premiering my latest artistic endeavor, “Observations.” Observations is an intimate and poignant view of everyday life spanning both international and domestic cities. This collection includes limited edition fine art photography, stationary and notecards, and books and publications. Selections from my Observations collection have been museum exhibited and can be found in galleries and personal international and domestic collections.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I make photos, sculptures and mixed media artworks. By taking daily life as subject matter while commenting on the everyday aesthetic of middle class values, I try to seduce 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.

My 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. My works are often 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, I investigate the dynamics of landscape, including the manipulation of its effects and the limits of spectacle based on our assumptions of what landscape means to us. Rather than presenting a factual reality, an illusion is fabricated to conjure the realms of our imagination.

My works sometimes radiate a cold and latent alienation and isolation. At times, disconcerting beauty emerges. The inherent visual seductiveness, along with the conciseness of the exhibitions, further complicates the reception of their manifold layers of meaning.

My artistic vision aims to prompt the viewer to stop and recognize life as it exists and occurs in everyday life.

What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
Given the economic, political, and societal climate of the world today I strongly believe current artists are making a concerted effort to affect change and shed light upon economic and societal inequalities across the world. Whether they choose a camera, a paintbrush, the spoken or written word, or any other artistic tool, they continually evolve to share their personal views aimed at combatting injustices and pushing boundaries that prompt art patrons to challenge their own perceptions and belief systems. Acknowledging and embracing national and international events affect my own art by expanding my understanding of alternative worldviews and prompting me to incorporate this newfound understanding into my expanding artistic vision.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
Interested art patrons can view my work at ryanchesla.com or on Saatchi Art Gallery Online, the world’s leading art gallery, at saatchi art.com.

Additionally, patrons can follow my artist’s pursuits on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanCheslaPhotographer/, Instagram, at ryanchesla, Tumblr at ryanchesla, and Twitter @ryanchesla.

I have exhibited in iconic Coachella Valley galleries including: Art Is, Inc. Gallery, Cambria Gallery, Desert Art Center, Fusion Gallery, Stephen Baumbach Studio & Gallery, Terry Hastings Gallery/University of California, Riverside, and the University of California, Riverside, University of California.

I have exhibited in Seattle, Washington at the Hedreen Gallery, the Kinsey Gallery, the Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery, Seattle Central College, and The Evergreen State College.

My work has also been exhibited at Palm Springs Art Museum, West Elm, West Elm Local, and was the featured photographer in West Elm’s Palm Springs 2018 Modernism Week Design House, “The Pool House.”

Finally Observation selections have been featured on international recording artist, Kimmo Matias’s 2018 album, “Parallel Bodies” and supporting singles.

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