Ryan Singer is inspired by the past: his own past as a boy visiting his great grandmother on the Navajo Reservation; the style and stylization of the famed Diné painter and printmaker, Harrison Begay; and the prehistory of the region when dinosaurs roamed the landscape.
Taking a Walk, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 in.
“I’ve been painting a lot of dinosaurs lately,” Singer says. “There aren’t a lot of dinosaurs in art and they’re fun to do. I’ve been thinking of the whole idea of time, folding it over and going back to that period and mixing it together in today’s Navajo landscape. Dinosaurs were always a part of my play as a kid. I drew them and studied them and learned their names and my great grandmother and I would find dinosaur bones at her sheep camp.
“I also studied the work of Harrison Begay from the ’50s and ’60s," continues the artist. “I remember getting a book and looking at the shapes of his vegetation. I’ve done my own take inspired by his style. I enjoy updating the forms or style. It’s paying homage to him.”
The Beginning of the End, sgraffito-carved natural clay, 5½ x 5½ in.
Before Begay died in 2012, he was the last living student of Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School. Dunn taught her students to paint in a flat, colorful style depicting scenes from Native American life.
In Taking a Walk, Singer brings everything together: Begay’s stylized clouds and patterns on the back of the dinosaur, the 50-million-year old buttes of the Navajo Tribal Park, dinosaurs from more than 100 million years ago and a young Navajo girl taking in the history of the scene of which she is the newest part of the landscape.
On the Hunt, acrylic on canvas, 12 x 16 in.
Singer’s latest work will be shown in the exhibition Ancient Futures at Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from April 10 to 23.
Among the works is a clay pot, The Beginning of the End. The lightly etched scene depicts volcanoes, dinosaurs, pterodactyls and a Tyrannosaurus Rex looking over its shoulder at an asteroid in the sky.
In the Moment, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 in.
“I’m studying for my master’s degree at the University of New Mexico and took a class in pueblo pottery. We learned the pueblo approach to gathering clay, offering prayer and constantly respecting the earth,” Singer says. “Clay is a whole different animal, almost a living breathing thing. When I was etching my design I was careful to not etch too deep because chunks of clay would fall off. It’s a whole different process and a different medium. You have to have a whole different frame of mind. It made me appreciate painting more, it’s much simpler and requires less prep and cleaning up…I have tons of clay left over and may get back to working with it this summer.” —
Blue Rain Gallery
April 10-23, 2026
544 S. Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 954-9902, www.blueraingallery.com
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