Ran Ortner

Robert Miller Gallery is pleased to announce Ran Ortner, a solo exhibition of new paintings by the artist.

Ortner’s process focuses on his unique relationship with the ocean which is reflected in large-scale paintings of bodies of water. His new work examines the tender and terrifying interplay that occurs as waves crash against one another. This show will be the artist’s first major solo exhibition.

An autodidact, Ortner has spent the past two decades creating a singular language with the ocean. It is in moments in the rhythm of moving water where Ortner finds inspiring potential. The intoxication he experiences through the elegant rage of the endless sea is what sparks each intricately layered painting.

The materials Ortner uses—colored mud or stone blended with paint—are very basic, stressing the elemental nature of the paintings’ construction, much to the same point as his use of a simple stick with animal hair fastened to it for a paintbrush. Employing a layering process inspired by the old masters, painting is a form of discovery for Ortner in which his technique is ever-evolving. The back and forth fretwork of this layering is where Ortner holds his intention and energy. He strives for his paintings to take on their own life, rather than become a depiction; he paints the ocean seen, not the ocean.