Meet Figurative Painter Ricky Vasan - Inside Art with Michael Rose

Meet Figurative Painter Ricky Vasan - Inside Art with Michael Rose

 

Providence continues to be a city where rising talents get their start. At RISD, MFA student Ricky Vasan is crafting remarkable large-scale paintings that focus on figures, spaces, and stories. Personal and evocative, Vasan’s work is already earning praise and plaudits.

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Originally from India, Vasan came to the United States to earn his BFA at MassArt and while in Boston was featured in Abigail Ogilvy Gallery’s Fresh Faces Exhibition and earned Best in Show in the Cambridge Art Association’s National Prize Show. He has exhibited his work throughout the Boston area as well as in Los Angeles and in India, where he is now represented by Gallery ISA in Mumbai. Through December 3, he has a painting on view at Sol Koffler Gallery for RISD’s Graduate Painting Biennial.

 

 

Asked what it means to him to be part of the community of RISD graduate painters, Vasan says, “I am deeply excited to be in such a collaborative and inspiring environment. Being able to just go knock on someone's door for a quick chat or painting advice is incredibly refreshing and much needed. My favourite aspect of being at RISD is how driven everyone is, we care so deeply about painting and never have to justify the need or desire to keep making.”

 

In his studio downtown, Vasan is working on a series of paintings that leverage incisive markmaking and muscular compositions to draw focus. He names a number of inspirational artists including Richard Diebenkorn, whose early figurative works utilized geometric foundations in similar ways as his emerging counterpart.

 

 

For Vasan, the figure has been a focus of his creativity from a young age. He explains, “I have always been interested in the human form, as a kid I was always drawing superheroes, action figures or people around me. This obsession is something that I've only embraced in my painting practice. Most people in my paintings are people I know and the people who most often repeat in the works are people who I spend most of my time with.”

 

But the artist’s love of the human form goes deeper, and is highly emotional. Vasan describes his intentions, saying, “It is extremely therapeutic for me to paint people that I love as it allows me to spend time with them. When I am painting someone, I often end up thinking about all of my interactions with that person and how I feel about them. As an immigrant, no matter where I travel, I always end up missing someone, and painting, for me, is a way to remember, yearn, and love. I think my only expectation from my viewers is recognition. My paintings act like a memoir and spending time with the paintings is not only spending time with me but also getting a very intimate look into my life. I just hope the viewers can share and resonate with how I feel about the people and parts of my life that I choose to depict.”

 

 

Vasan’s paintings document friends and intimates, house parties and evenings on the couch. They are views into his life and the lives of his friends and contemporaries. They capture a moment in time and a specific generation of individuals, crystallizing them in well-crafted paintings.

 

Asked about his aspirations as an emerging artist, Vasan answers, “I feel very fortunate in the way my early career has shaped up. I never thought that I would be able to exhibit my work at the capacity that I have and some of the interactions and conversations that have come from these opportunities are priceless. Painting is not a solitary thing, it truly takes a lot of people to help you get started from someone believing in you and taking a chance in trusting you to put on a show to friends helping gesso and driving paintings around.”

 

 

A social painter, Vasan puts real people at the center of his art. His striking paintings are already the subject of acclaim at the midpoint of his graduate work. With his considerable talent and vision, the sky is the limit for this emerging artist.

 

 

Vasan sums up where he currently is in his career by saying, “I am mostly just grateful for everything that has happened in the last one year and I feel no different about being at RISD. It was always my dream to attend this school. I think my list of goals has always been overly ambitious and it remains that way. There is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to being an artist but all I can do is stay sincere and true to the painting and let it guide everything else.”

 

Learn more about Ricky Vasan at his website www.rickyvasan.com, or follow him on Instagram at @rickyvasan_art.