Russell
Ronat

Russell Ronat is a San Francisco-based contemporary artist originally from South Africa. Working across drawing, painting, large-scale fabric prints, and video, he creates immersive bodies of work that center on endangered species and the ecosystems that sustain them.

His practice is built on mark-making — each work on paper or canvas constructed through layers of texture, line, and detail that reward close looking. His large painted prints on fabric are backlit and designed for exhibition in both indoor and outdoor environments, creating an atmospheric, luminous effect at scale.

Ronat also creates projection work that documents the progression of a painting as it comes into being — moving image as process, and process as art.

Since founding Project Holocene, Ronat has partnered with conservation organizations around the world to raise awareness and funding for wildlife through art. Exhibit partnerships have included National Geographic Encounter in New York City, the Glasshouse Museum in Port Macquarie Australia benefiting the Koala Hospital, Art Basel benefiting Global Wildlife Conservation, the Bonobo Conservation Initiative in Washington Square NYC, and the RiNo Art District in Denver in support of the Katie Adamson Conservation Fund.

His work has been shown at museums, zoos, and public exhibitions internationally, including the Georgia Aquarium, The Science Museum of Minnesota, Brevard Zoo, San Antonio Zoo, Phoenix Zoo, Los Angeles Zoo, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, and the National Taiwan Science Education Center, among others.