RYAN MOSLEY (B. 1980)

As a young artist, Mosley supported himself through work as a warden at London’s National Gallery, but was repeatedly disciplined for sketching the paintings. The influence of past masters certainly echoes in Mosley’s work. The theatrical circus-troupe members that recur often in his oeuvre convey a pathos reminiscent of Picasso’s Blue period but Mosley updates this subject with graphic shapes and a contemporary perspective enhanced by the super foregrounded horizon line. In the artist’s words: The horizon is “a structure at the bottom of the canvas… where protagonists would play out their narratives…a stage, supporting characters as they play their story".