Ru Lyons

Instagram: @rubb3rtree

Bio: Ru Lyons is an oil painter based in the Bay Area who makes work that explores the conflicts between biology, identity, and the digital world. His painting practice balances meticulous rendering with an awareness of the materiality and texture of oil paint, resulting in paintings that read loose and expressive up close and appear more photographic from a distance. Ru is finishing his last semester of his BFA at California College of the Arts and looks forward to continuing his art practice after graduation, no matter what.

Statement: The concept of “biological reality” is frequently misrepresented in conservative propaganda to delegitimize transgender identities. As a transgender painter with a background in the natural sciences, I am interested in exploring notions of “biological reality” in my work. I paint in layers, letting parts of the underpainting and earlier iterations of my compositions show through. Using this obstruction method, I paint seemingly unremarkable organisms and present them as windows or portals to queer self-realization; Or, more specifically, conduits for epiphanies about the joy, sadness, and laughing-crying absurdity of being transgender in this current political moment. Over the last two semesters of my undergraduate degree at CCA, I have been exploring digital distortions and multilayered interference through oil painting. In response to the current political uncertainty, my paintings have become more impulsive and iterative; I will often begin one painting and then start a completely different one on top of it. Though sometimes I completely obscure the previous iterations of a painting, I feel that hidden underlayers imbue my work with the humor of scrapped ideas and creative struggle.