Ryan Bredlau ( He/Him )

The heart of my work has always been centered on the human condition and, more specifically, my own condition. As viewers, we can identify with what it means to be human and the everyday chaos that comes with our daily lives. The creation process is a source of therapy. Through this process of making and self-discovery, I try to connect with the frustration, amusement, disgust, happiness, and pain that I feel internally and that is present in our society/popular culture. I use the human form while also substituting such objects as dolls, tools, furniture, and toys to make a medley with which the viewer can engage. Such issues as innocence, mortality, and the potency of humanity are constant filaments within my design process. My work can be very dark and surreal. I am greatly influenced by the California Funk Art Movement which was anti-establishment and reacted to non-objective art in the 1960s. Funk artists took everyday objects and placed them in irrational arrangements as a protest to the slick forms of the abstract movement. That absurdity has also carried over into my work which tends to have a whimsical playfulness to its composition.

Ryan Bredlau grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, and attended Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art in 2005, focusing on ceramics, sculpture, and glassblowing. After taking several graduate classes at the University of Iowa, Ryan went south to Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2010 with a focus in ceramics and sculpture. During and after graduate school Ryan had worked for several companies outside St. Louis as an Artisan in bronze and cast iron. In 2011 He then went to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he was a Studio Technician and Adjunct Professor of Studio Art for the University of St. Francis for four years. He now currently resides in St. Charles, Missouri, were he has been an Artist in Resident of Ceramics at Craft Alliance Center for Art and Design St. Louis Mo. From 2016-2017, Assistant Preperator at Laumeier Sculpture Park St. Louis Mo., Adjunct Professor of Ceramics at Jefferson College in Hillsboro Mo. He is currently the Studio Technician and overflow instructor at St. Charles Community College in St. Charles Mo. And previous Adjunct Professor of Ceramics at Blackburn College in Carlinville, IL. Ryan has three children. When Ryan isn’t working he enjoys creating ceramic sculpture from hand built and slip cast forms. His work has been shown around the St. Louis area as well as southern Indiana.