BIOGRAPHY
Portrait by Laurie Victor Kay
Ron Norsworthy is an American interdisciplinary artist whose practice centers on intricately constructed collages in relief that blur distinctions between photography, sculpture, painting, and installation. Raised in the Midwest and a graduate of Princeton University, Norsworthy brings a rigorous framework to a body of work that explores identity through objects, spaces, and immersive environments.
Trained as an architect and renowned as a production designer for iconic music videos, Norsworthy composes richly layered environments with a distinct spatial poetics. His signature technique merges digital composition with meticulous hand construction: exposed plywood planes push through the picture surface, revealing process while simultaneously depicting space. This interplay complicates perception and underscores identity as something constructed, staged, and continually in flux.
His work has been exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Newark Museum of Art, New-York Historical Society, and others, with solo exhibitions at Project for Empty Space, Long Gallery Harlem, Wassaic Project, and Edwynn Houk Gallery. He has participated in major fairs including Art Basel Miami Beach, The Armory Show, AIPAD Photography Show, and Paris Photo.
Norsworthy has completed residencies at Project for Empty Space and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and is a MacDowell Fellow. He has been awarded an Artistic Excellence Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts and nominated for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award and for the USA Fellowship Award. His work is widely published and held in private and institutional collections worldwide. He also collaborates with his husband, fellow artist David Anthone, as DARNstudio.