Dylan Rheingold is an illustrator based out of New York City. She has a heavy interest in the areas of social realism, diversity & gender equality. She tends to work on a large scale as she draws connections between these elements through an abstraction of color, shape and line density. She received her BFA in Illustration from Syracuse University in 2019. 

STATEMENT

Coming from a home filled with contrasting ethnicities, cultures, sexualities and religions, she was lucky enough to be exposed to many differences from a very young age. Dylan Rose is very aware of the unfortunate truth that many are not blessed with this same luxury. As a result, she attempts to create works that subconsciously force these ironic narratives of contrast & acceptance on the viewer. Shining a positive light on those who stray from society’s guidelines of cookie cutter glamour and perfection. 

She is especially fascinated by the little details embedded within everyday lifestyles. These little details include how one dresses, what one eats, where one lives and other recreational activities or ways one may spend their free time. She enjoys creating paintings and drawings that expose and combine various everyday notions in order to produce an unconventional perspective. She has also conducted a great deal of socio-geographic, psychological and financial research regarding how people become or are born into their cultural and social class settings. From being born in New York City, to move to a small provincial suburban town in Long Island, to attending University in one of the most poverty stricken cities in America, exploring the degrees of contrast she has been to exposed came as second nature.

Specifically, the fluidity of relationships between those adored in modern day society and those straying from these idealist molds. Her paintings are non traditional as they are all mixed media; balancing layers of paint drawn over with ink, conte crayon & china marker. A great deal of inspiration for her paintings also come from raiding old bookstores with found photographs, antique postcards, newspapers and magazines.

After purchasing the remains of an anonymous family photo album, she began painting and drawing over these strangers. Throughout her collecting process she was fascinated by the degree of difference she had acquired within her subjects. These many images found in both popular and unpopular media exposed varying degrees of setting, social class, race, sexual orientations, age and expression.

More than anything she aims to connect these separated groups/figures and recreate the sense of contrast co-existing between them. Regardless of the way one was born, raised or physically appears either if it’s by nature or choice, we are all people.