I was once asked “Is painting/art an education?”

-“As a painter? Always. You learn from everything you do, even if you’ve done the exact thing before. No ones ever told me how to paint, I haven’t been classically trained or anything. I’m trying to learn as I go along. Teach myself. No ones ever sat down and said ‘this is how its done.’ I suppose it may take me a bit longer to get there, but its worked so far.”

-“Ideally I’d like, if it’s a gallery situation, for my work to stand on its own. Without the need for the viewer to necessarily have any sort of preconceived understanding of what my works about. And you look at it on the wall: its a painting, an image, a sculpture. Its not just what was painted, but the physicality of it….”

Andrew Pranger is a working painter and print-maker originally from Richmond, Virginia.  He studied Fine Art Painting at the University of Brighton, one of England’s most well respected institutions, and graduated with honors.  His work has been shown with many respected galleries and organizations throughout the US and England and sells privately as well. He started two collectives of young artists who found disused spaces in towns and turned them into temporary “pop up” galleries, gaining rave reviews from local and national art publications as well as the public.  After years of living in Europe he returned to the US and currently lives in Eagle, Colorado where he is President of the Vail Valley Art Guild.

His work focuses on the engagement with the relationship between medium and idea. He attempts to show attention to the details of applying paint that takes into account the rich tradition of oil painting. Working within a highly figurative and traditional context, his work seeks to question the roles of painterly realism in relation to modern mass-media spectacle. His paintings deal with hubris and failure, yet attempt to maintain a lightness of touch and self-deprecating humor that preserves the difficult balance between the profound and the approachable. Pranger uses the language of portraiture to draw in viewers but corrupts and perverts understanding of the work on display. The identity of the figure, is beside the point.

Group Exhibitions and Shows

  • Centre for the Arts final Show– Artworks Gallery, Richmond, 2008
  • An Exchange- BLANK Gallery, Portslade, England 2010
  • Grammar, Nonsense and Imagination- University of Brighton Gallery, 2011
  • Altared- Brighton, England, 2011
  • Collaborate- Brighton, England, 2011
  • Spaski- Grey Area Gallery, Brighton, England, 2012
  • Up and Beyond- University of Brighton Gallery, 2012
  • Art Works call for entries- Richmond, Virginia 2013
  • The Artist Lyceum- Richmond, Virginia, Oct 2013
  • The Artist Lyceum- Richmond, Virginia, Mar 2014
  • Small Works Show– Limner Gallery, New York, Dec 2015
  • Ovation-Glave Kocen Gallery, Feb 2016
  • LAA National Juried Show– Boulder, Colorado, Sept 2016
  • Small Works Show– Limner Gallery, New York, Dec 2016
  • Vail Art and Jazz Exhibition-Vail, Colorado,  2017-2021
  • Own an Original– Denver, Colorado November 2017
  • Taos Art Insurgency: The New Protagonists– Taos, New Mexico, April/May 2019
  • 2019 Contemporary Art Survery– Lincoln Centre, Ft. Collins, Colorado, May-July 2019
  • Printmaking Plus– D’art Gallery, Denver, Colorado, Jan 2020 (Mo’Print Festival)
  • Knot Works Presents II– Knot Works Gallery, Southborough, England, March-May 2022

Solo Exhibitions and Shows

  • Dark and Stormy-DJ’s and Dahlias Gallery. Gypsum, Colorado. July 2018
  • Untitled- Vail Mountain Coffee and Tea. Minturn, Colorado. April 2019

Competitions and Awards

  • Scholastic Art Competition 2008 State Level: Gold Medal Portfolio
  • Scholastic Art Competition 2008 National Level: Silver Medal Portfolio
  • Seoul National University Awards for Outstanding Creative Achievement
  • Vail Valley Fine Art Show, 2017- Best in Show Award (2D) 
  • Vail Valley Fine Art Show, 2018- Best Figurative/Portrait 
  • Vail Valley Partnership: Young Professional of the Year 18-19′,  finalist
  • Vail Valley Fine Art Show, 2019- Best In Show, Best Still Life
  • Vail Valley Fine Art Show, 2021- Best In Show, Judge’s Choice

Permanent Collections

  • Colorado Mountain College