Ricky Lee Gordon

STUDY OF THE RIVER MOUTH

2025

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1984, Ricky Lee Gordon is an artist and curator represented by Escat Gallery. His studio practice sees him create natural landscapes on canvas using pigments and dyes found only in nature, a deeply personal process he likens to meditation for the manner in which it illuminates the interconnectedness of all life. Working under the aegis of painting nature with nature, he explores a variety of mediums, seeking harmony through the alchemy of materials and form in processes that include oxidizing plant dyes, rock pigments, batik printing with beeswax, cyanotypes, lithographs, copper, and acid engravings. In his public practice, Lee Gordon is known as one of “street art’s 11 greats” (National Geographic) for his large-scale artworks highlighting social and environmental issues for organizations such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and the United Nations. Having moved to Cape Town in his twenties, he founded A WORD OF ART Gallery, the Colour Ikamva school rejuvenation project, and the Andpeople advertising agency. Lee Gordon went on to live in Los Angeles in 2015, where he studied anatomy, classical drawing, and painting at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art. With the ocean remaining an ever-present source of inspiration, he lived in Sri Lanka from 2016 to 2022, where he created the Śūnyatā artist residency. He is now based in Bali, Indonesia, where he founded SUN.CONTEMPORARY in 2024, a gallery and art advisory that nurtures and creates connections between the island’s creative community and the international art world.