about

Fiona Ryder is a visual artist and actress based in Los Angeles, CA.

She was born in Chile to a native social worker and an American sea captain/fisherman who was working alongside the Chilean navy in Viña del Mar to recover toxic waste from the ocean. Her early childhood was spent in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert on earth, where she experienced the rare "flowering desert". At age 11 she went to live in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where her father's side of the family had resided since the days of Plymouth Rock. The contrast of the arid landscapes and biodiverse miracles of the Chilean desert with the beautiful beaches, coastal light and Old American visages of Cape Cod have deeply inspired and informed her creative process. Her dynamic upbringing, vivid memories, a coming of age for the books and overcoming of hardship has led her on a journey of self-discovery and growth in which the creation of art has been a major component.

When she turned 18, she drove across the country to California in pursuit of her dreams.
At 19 the "Coachella Valley Art Scene" gallery invited her to host her first solo show. A famous Hollywood director/screenwriter became her first serious collector during the opening and the one month show was a hit. When she was 20 she lived in Joshua Tree and hosted a monthly mini-festival called "Dreamhouse" centered around highlighting local and traveling musicians/bands, artists, designers, poets and other creatives. By age 21, she launched her own pop-up gallery, "Art Pop" on the world famous Palm Canyon Drive in the Palm Springs Uptown Design District. The most valuable artwork in the exhibit was sold during the grand opening and the project was a major success.
Fiona received press recognition for her accomplishments in the California Desert from Locale Magazine, Coachella Magazine, Desert Magazine, Hi- Desert Star newspaper and KCOD radio. She has also shown her work in other galleries and venues in Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Joshua Tree, Hollywood, Laguna Beach and Cape Cod. She was accepted into the XI Florence Biennial in Italy, themed "eARTh : creativity and sustainability".

Fiona now lives and creates in Los Angeles, CA. She has transferred much of her creative and professional focus to acting which she sees as another medium for storytelling and creative cultural contribution. Acting is a serious craft, a creative pursuit requiring discipline and the will to grow and learn and a mental, emotional and physical challenge. It often requires collaboration and almost always a sense of empathy and understanding of what it means to be human in different contexts. The crossroads of art, acting/film/tv, fashion and music is her overarching point of interest. Although these exist separately socially and are individual practices, they converge in many ways that are often overlooked. The role of creativity and expression in a societal context is a theme that she will always pursue, but her main passion is art for the sake of art (Ars Gratia Artis).

Artist Statement

Most of my work is an exploration into the subconscious, the subatomical, and macro and microcosms of what is hidden beneath our reality. Many of my paintings are "energy maps" that show what things might look like in the spiritual realm. My early interest in the connection between quantum physics and eastern mysticism heavily influence the work. I also see my process as a sort of psychological mapping, where there's a visual representation given to a specific thought or idea- an aerial view of the mind. I like to think of my art as a futuristic continuation of the female midcentury abstract expressionist and color field artists such as Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell, with the mystical and spiritual undertones of Hilda Af Clint. The exposure to electronics since a young age and the changing modern world change my perspective and give me a more digital and ultramodern point of view and aesthetic, although the concept is quite similar to that of my predecessors. I have also been inspired by Rothko, Picasso, Basquiat and Warhol but strive to find my own distinct style.