Ransome

Ransome's practice originates with the story of his grandparents, who were sharecroppers in North Carolina. While the pictorial narratives he creates are personal, the symbols are universal and interplay with larger social, racial, economic, and political realities; the history of my family is the history of Black America, which is the history of America. 
 

All of his works are abstract, even when figurative. Ransome create collages with acrylic paint and found, made, and purchased papers. The materials used are conceptual statements fueled by growing up in a poor community near the coastal region of North Carolina where recycling was common. Similarly, the quilts of the women of Gee’s Bend are important influences, borne of limited resources, frugality, and resilience. Ransome states, "My works are lyrical yet authentic and speak to the struggle and hope, pain, joy, and soul of folks in the Black community."

Ransome is a studio artist based in the Hudson Valley of New York. He was born in a small town in Rich Square, North Carolina, where he lived with his grandmother into high school before moving to New Jersey, as part of the final generation of the Great Migration.

“My grandmother often used Gullah phrases, which leads me to believe there is some ancestral lineage to Gullah culture,” said Ransome. The Gullah Geechee people have traditionally resided in the coastal areas and the sea islands of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

In 1987, he graduated from Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, then served as a tenured professor at the School of Visual Performing Arts at Syracuse University for many years before leaving to pursue a full-time studio art career. He subsequently received his MFA in Studio Arts from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In June of 2022, Ransome was awarded a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, which to produce a video installation for his forthcoming solo exhibition at the Opalka Gallery at Sage College in Albany, scheduled for 2023. Ransome also has upcoming exhibitions scheduled for the Alpha Gallery in Boston in October and Lockwood Gallery in Kingston, New York, in August of this year.

He has also been awarded the Hudson Valley Artist Purchase Award from the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz, New York. Ransome's work has been included in group exhibitions in museums and galleries across the country.

PUBLIC STUDIO HOURS

Tuesdays and Wednesdays 11am - 4pm