| Artist | Ryan Pola | Resides | Australia |
| Website | ryanpola.com | Medium | Graphite |
| Print Shop | ryanpola.com/shop | ryan.pola@hotmail.com | |
| Follow the Artist | Instagram | Facebook | Themes | Mythology Identity LGBTQIA+ Figurative Art Realism Flora |
About the artist
Ryan Pola is an artist from Melbourne Australia who has always had an interest in creative methods of representing ideas and interpretations of the world around him. This is a passion he has carried since a young child. Studying a Bachelor of Visual Art and a Bachelor of Education he now works as a graphite artist and an educator. Being able to connect with young artists and share creative passion is just as important as being able to create his own work.
Drawing eventually became a love as well as a passion. For some time now Pola has been refining his drawing abilities to be able to translate ideas and feelings from his mind to the paper. Recently Pola was proud to win the Southern Buoy Portrait Prize (2022) & the Rainbow Award, Biblio Art Prize (2022).
Artwork Themes & Subject Matter
Since Ryan Pola began to use art as a platform to explore ideas, nature has always played a common motif. The cyclical rebirth that nature continually goes through lends well to often represented themes in the artworks. Common themes in his works are connections to one another and nature, time, histories, and identity (especially identity within the LGBTQIA+ community). Through artwork Ryan is trying to address themes often thought bigger than us; death, life, rebirth, hubris, love. Those trickier themes that often make us fallible beings.
A lot of the art he creates explores notions of representing or personifying mythology, drawing deeply from Greek tales as inspiration for allegories of the human condition. People, flora, and poetry play equal parts in the process of creating the artworks. Using real life relationships the subjects in the artwork layer personal connections and histories. Flora are present en masse around the figures. The overwhelming and consuming masses of flowers dually shift between symbiotic and parasitic bonds with the figures. Often while creating these drawings poetry comes as a demand rather than an additional outlet. Words are becoming equally as important as the graphite on the page, the poems delving into similar ideas as the drawn artworks.
Press
Ryan Pola’s works have been published in notable magazines and online sources including Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, Snapshot Interview, and Canvas Collective.
Upcoming Exhibitions
| When | Exhibition | Gallery |
| November 2023 | Solo exhibition: “Labour of Love” | Off The Kerb Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
CV
Education
2016, Bachelor of Visual Art, Monash University, VIC, Australia
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2021
Full Bloom, Beinart Gallery, Brunswick, VIC. Australia
2020
Collapsing Light, Off The Kerb, Collingwood, VIC. Autsralia
2018
Everything Gained Lost, Off The Kerb Gallery, Collingwood, VIC. Australia
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022
Antipodes, Beinart Gallery, Brunswick, VIC. Australia
LOCALS, Outre Gallery, Fritroy, VIC. Australia
Interconnected, Curated by Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, NSW. Australia
2021
Winter Days, Off The Kerb, VIC. Australia
Dark Art, Beinart Gallery, Brunswick, VIC. Australia
2020
OUT (Midsumma Exhibition), Brunswick Street Gallery, Brunswick, VIC. Australia
Crossing Boarders, AMBUSH Gallery, Waterloo, Sydney, NSW. Australia
2019
Banyule Award for Works on Paper, Hatch Contemporary Arts Space, Ivanhoe, VIC. Australia
Agendo Art Prize Exhibition, David Williams Gallery, Camberwell, VIC. Australia
2018
Undercurrents, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC. Australia
Wall to Wall, MADA Mid Year Exhibition, Monash University, Caulfield, VIC. Australia
2017
Exploration 17, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, VIC. Australia
Agendo Art Prize Exhibition, The David Williams Gallery, Camberwell, VIC. Australia
