Ran Ortner was born in 1959 in San Francisco and raised in rural Alaska. His first career was as a professional motorcycle racer. He continues to ride and remains an avid surfer.
In 1990, Ortner moved to Brooklyn and spent two decades working in solitude. Over time Ortner’s work became reductive, eventually distilling into a minimalist language. It was in this period of engagement with minimalism that Ortner discovered recurring motifs that evoked both the expansive feeling of the ocean and visceral body memories from decades of surfing.
In 2005 Ortner began to confront his life long intoxication with the ocean. Influenced by the emotional complexity of great old master paintings, Ortner began to explore a particular kind of intensity realized through the layering of oil paint. Through this process Ortner holds both the muscular immediacy and the delicacy he experiences in the ocean.