Ryan Hackett received his B.A. in studio art from the University of Maryland, College Park, and his M.F.A. from San Francisco Art Institute. In between his academic pursuits, he co-founded Decatur Blue, a Washington D.C.-based artist collective that challenged the commercial constructs of the art world by serving as curator, artist, and gallery. Hackett's work has been featured in exhibitions internationally including the permanent collection of the U.S. Department of State's Arts in Embassies program currently on exhibit in Madagascar. In 2010 Hackett was the recipient of the Janet and Walter Sondhiem Prize for his exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art. This fall 2011 he will be exhibiting work in a solo show natural synthetics at the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park, NYC.