Ryan Hubbard has lived in many places but spent most of his formative years in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. He studied philosophy and psychology at George Mason University before traveling to Frankfurt am Main on a Fulbright Grant to study Critical Theory.

Although he had always enjoyed making art, it was his experience of Documenta—a major international contemporary art exhibition in Kassel—that catalyzed a deep and lasting passion for it. This encounter reshaped his relationship to art, transforming it from a personal interest into a more serious creative pursuit.

That passion, however, receded during graduate school, where he focused on philosophical training and completed a dissertation on normative theory. Six years later, it was renewed by another exhibition: Public Eye Soar, a public projection art event in Panama City, Florida. Reinvigorated by this experience, he returned to painting with a renewed sense of purpose.

Since then, Hubbard has pursued realistic figure painting, working primarily with a limited palette. His practice explores the expressive and conceptual possibilities of realism while seeking to push its traditional boundaries.