Expertise:
Ms. Ragir's expertise is in figurative sculpture and media including bronze, ceramic stainless steel and aluminum. Her works include pedestal and wall-mounted residential, corporate and public sculptures.
Major Product/SVS:
Public, Residential and Corporate Art, Sculpture in Bronze, Ceramic, Stainless Steel and Aluminum including Pedestal and Wall-Mounted Work with Scales Ranging from Inches to Monumental
Favorite Business Publication:
The Artful Home; Guild Sourcebooks; The Guild Sourcebook of Architectural & Interior Art; Encyclopedia of Living Artists; Smithsonian
Hobbies/Sports:
Spending Time with those she Loves, Listening to Music, Working Out
Education Degrees:
Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of California, Santa Cruz
Affiliations Awards:
Women in Business; National Association of Women Artists; American Society of Contemporary Artists; International Sculpture Center
Work History:
Group Exhibition, The Gordon Pass Gallery, Naples, FL, ‘The Year of the Chimera 3.2,’ Glass Garage Gallery, W. Hollywood, CA, Decker Studios Bronze, Varnish Fine Art, San Francisco, CA (2007); Group Exhibition, ‘A Twisted Christmas,’ BGH Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (2005); Solo Exhibition, Fresh Paint, Culver City CA (2004); Group Exhibition, BGH Gallery, Santa Monica CA (2004); Solo Exhibition, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Bakersfield, CA (2003); Solo Exhibition, BGH Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (2003); Group Exhibition, ‘Contemporary Realism,’ Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, AZ, ‘The Sculptors,’ Gallery 835, Los Angeles, CA, North American Sculpture Exhibition, Golden, CO, BGH Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA, ‘The Human Plane,’ Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2002); Group Exhibition, National Sculpture Society Annual Exhibition, Americas Tower, New York, NY (2000-2001); Los Angeles County Museum of Art Exhibition Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2000); Solo Exhibition, ‘Interiors,’ The Artists' Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (2000); Group Exhibitions, Valerie Miller Fine Art Gallery, Palm Desert, CA (1997); Solo Exhibition, Burbank Contemporary Art Center, Burbank, CA (1995); Group Exhibitions, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA (1995); Group Exhibitions, Rachele Lozzi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Hundai Gallery, Seoul, Korea, Artyard, Denver, CO (1995); Group Exhibitions, Platt Gallery, University of Judaism, Los Angeles, CA, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea (1993); Solo Exhibitions, ‘The Feminine Landscape,’ Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (1992); Group Exhibitions, California Sculpture Alliance Show, Whittier Museum, Whittier, CA (1990)
Charity:
Venice Family Clinic; St. Joseph's Center; Dream Street Foundation; Center Theater Group; Los Angeles Music Center; LACMA; Upward Bound House; The Art and Music Support Network
Number Of Years In Profession:
32
Number Of Years In Current Position:
22
What Does He/She Attribute Success To:
She attributes her success to her perseverance and high standards.
Why did you become involved in your profession or industry?:
She became involved in her profession because she was always artistically gifted and was inspired by a teacher to pursue a career in art.
Extended Bio Profile:
All of Tanya Ragir’s work is figurative in origin. For years, she has been exploring the sensual relationship between land form and human form. By framing details of the figure as if through a lens, then changing the scale, one can have both a more intimate relationship to the form and separation from its human reference. She was always been intrigued by the way in which form originates from and returns to an unseen source, the invisible interior. When sculpting people, she is interested in the essence of the person. She perceives beauty as authenticity, not perfection. She has been exploring her own conflict between her love for beauty in the physical form and her desire to go beyond the surface in the expression of that beauty. Some of the work deals with the juxtaposition of how a woman may be perceived externally, and her internal experience. In all the work, Ms. Ragir has a great reverence for grace and attempts to find a balance between sensuality and power. Ms. Ragir sculpts from life in clay. People often assume that she takes castings directly from the human body. As a result, for many years, she worked primarily smaller, or substantially larger than life-size. This is no longer the case. She has recently been working on a series of life-size pieces of women of all ages that she admires. She produces work in small editions and also create unique pieces. The clay pieces are either fired or molded and cast into a variety of materials, such as bronze, polyester resin, aluminum and stainless steel. The pieces are sometimes glazed and re-fired or hand painted with acrylic or oils. Tanya was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She started drawing and sculpting from a very young age. By the time she was fifteen, Tanya was studying anatomy, which included sketching cadavers at the USC medical center. She learned the lost wax casting process by making jewelry in her teens, which was always conceptually figurative. Ms. Ragir studied many forms of dance, including modern, jazz and ballet. She was part of a ballet company before going to college. Ms. Ragir’s works are in permanent collections of the Total Art Museum in Seoul, Korea, the Rose Museum at Brandeis University, Columbia College of Dance and Cerro Cosa College. Her work has been internationally collected and is represented in the Frederick Weisman collection, among others.
Awards/Honors:
Silver Medal, National Sculpture Society, John Cavanaugh Memorial Award, NSS 2000 Annual Exhibition, Brookgreen Gardens, SC and NY (2000); John Cavanaugh Memorial Award for Figurative Sculpture, North American Sculpture Exhibition, Foothills Art Center, Golden, CO (1996); Award, 'California Small Works,' California Museum of Art, Santa Rosa, CA (1991); Grand Prize, 'Museum Without Walls,' Juried Exhibition, Pacific Garden Mall, Santa Cruz, CA (1976)