Ed Ruscha was born in 1937 in Omaha, Nebraska.
He has an expansive practice and is most often described as a Pop Artist. He makes tongue-in-cheek photo collages, paintings and drawings that show a keen interest in language and the idiosyncrasies of life in Los Angeles where he has spent most of his life.
In his more famous works he places colloquial words and phrases on top of photographic images or fields of colour connecting the verbal with the visual. He once said “I like the idea of a word becoming a picture, almost leaving its body, then coming back and becoming a word again.”
He has often used unusual materials in his paintings and drawings including gunpowder and blood.
Ed Ruscha represented the USA in the 2005 Venice Biennale and has exhibited extensively around the globe.