Oona Ratcliffe


Oona Ratcliffe’s broken topographies and shifting patterns capture the frenetic energy of urban life, exploring the addictive energy of big cities. The colorful, geometric abstractions are executed with staggering precision.  Alive with color, the works vibrate with a vitality that extends into the surrounding space.   The highly sensorial pieces begin as pencil drawings before the artist applies layer after layer of paint pigment, resulting in luminous, smooth symphonies of color.  Ratcliffe will intuitively deviate from the preparatory sketch, allowing each work to emerge organically.

Born in California, Ratcliffe studied at the École de Louvre before exhibiting widely throughout the United States.  Her works are held in private collections in France, Indonesia, Washington, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles and New York.

Read more →

Despite the abstraction, one senses that the vibrant swirls and splashes of color depict distinct topographies.  Building upon a background in pleine-air landscape painting, the artist considers her works to represent emotional landscapes.

“My paintings metaphorically describe a world suspended in a state of perpetual wanting, a place driven by insatiable frenetic seeking of stimulation and sensation. Through pictorial enactments using color and form I hope to explore both the opulent and addictively engulfing and the ungrounded, shallow and dangerously destructive energies of such a ‘want’ driven space.”-Oona Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe studied art at the École du Louvre, Paris, before completing her Master’s degree in Fine Arts at New York’s prestigious Hunter College.  The artist was awarded the Graf Travel Grant from Hunter College and has been featured in Art Forum amongst other publications. She has exhibited widely throughout the U.S.  Ratcliffe’s works reside in private collections throughout New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, Washington, Grenoble (France), and Indonesia.