Ryan Schneider, September 2026
Ryan Schneider at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. Photo by Kerry Constantino.
Ryan Schneider was born in Indianapolis, IN, US, and holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He lives and works in Joshua Tree, CA, US.
Schneider explores various artistic expressions, demonstrating his deep connection to raw materials and a celebration of nature; he draws deep inspiration from the rugged ecosystem of his home environment in California’s Mojave Desert. His works, infused with mythology and mysticism, and often referencing European Modernism, are characterized by angular and sharp sculpted elements, where wood components and a striking color palette evoke both the gentleness of the natural world and humanity’s primal instincts. His reverence for the sacred in nature connects his work to various pre-Christian traditions, creating powerful echoes throughout his practice and granting his creations a sophisticated, megalithic and meditative quality. Schneider works with earth materials, usually wood, stone, bronze, and gold, to create archetypal forms that invoke pre-history and futuristic states.
Ryan Schneider's work is held in public and private collections worldwide, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Palm Springs Museum of Art, CA; the Hall Art Foundation, Vermont; the Long Beach Museum of Art, CA; the Capital One Collection; The Crocker Museum, Sacramento, CA; and the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection. Among other publications, his work has been reviewed or featured in Frieze, Artforum, Sculpture Magazine, The New Yorker, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, Juxtapoz, and The Paris Review. The artist will have a solo exhibition at La Térmica in Malaga, Spain in 2026. Recent solo exhibitions include La Citadelle Centre d’art and Musee, Villefranche-sur-Mer, FR, (2025) and Almine Rech, Tribeca (2024).
View Ryan’s instagram here.
This residency is in partnership with the Ogunguit Museum of American Art (OMAA).
In September 2026, Ryan Schneider was an exhibiting artist at the OMAA. Schneider was hosted at Surf Point while creating a new sculpture on-site at the museum.
Words from the Ogunquit Museum of American Art Instagram:
“The project will open April 23, 2027, through November 14 , 2027, and will be installed throughout the Museum’s three-acre sculpture gardens on the Atlantic coast. The exhibition will survey Schneider’s materially driven practice across wood, stone, and bronze. . . The exhibition will include a new site-responsive work created from an ash tree from the Museum’s grounds which was killed by the invasive emerald ash borer beetle. From September 9 through 30, 2026, Schneider will be in residence at OMAA developing and working on the new sculpture. The project continues Schneider’s exploration of material transformation while creating a dialogue between the Museum’s modernist history and the evolving ecological landscape of coastal Maine.”
Ryan Schneider working on his sculpture at the Ogunquit Museum of Art. Photo by Kerry Constantino.