Ronan Porter

Ronan Porter currently resides in London, has a BA (Hons) Fine Art from the University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury, and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art. They have exhibited work in Warsaw, Poland; Paphos, Cyprus; and in Canterbury, Newcastle, Margate, and London, England.

They were born in the UK in 1994, but raised in a number of countries, first moving to Peru when they were four years old. Since then they have also lived in Papua New Guinea, Norway, Texas (US), Poland, Qatar, and Cyprus, only returning to the UK for university. They are eager to continue exploring other worlds, both real and fictional.

Brief Statement:

Serenity and chaos, vastness and insignificance, introspection and exploration, connection and isolation, discovery and suffocation. I’ve always had big ideas, my work is about finding the best way to convey not just their content but their immensity. Books can contain entire universes; paintings are theatrically large and immersive; film uses multiple senses to bring you into another world – there are so many ways I can bring my story Ragnar to life. Each incarnation brings something new and sparks different interpretations and questions.

I wrote a novel in the first lockdown – Ragnar, an invented world with a diverse cast of characters and an adventure driven by the question – can the human spirit be stronger than trauma? Ragnar is an arid red planet, a colour palette that influenced many paintings, where my protagonist Ren is defying their upbringing – and role in an oppressive regime – to rescue their partner and open themselves up to others along the way. The texts on every painting come from the novel and all image references are inspired by this other world and the characters in it.