Ross Bleckner was born in New York City in 1949. In 1965 the young Ross Bleckner attended his first art exhibition - the "The Responsive Eye", the famous Op-Art exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. This encounter nurtured his wish to become an artist. After he graduated from high school Ross Bleckner began to study art and completed the New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1971. At the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia he received a Master of Arts in1973.
Afterwards Ross Bleckner returned to New York City and had his first solo show at a gallery in 1975.
As artist Ross Bleckner shows particular interest in structures. Based on this preference he made the "Stripe paintings" in the early 1980s. These works in the style of the famous Op Artist Bridget Riley also reflect his early encounters with the exhibition "The Responsive Eye".
In later series Ross Bleckner veered away from Op Art. In a series from 1983 Ross Bleckner examined weather phenomena, and under the influence of the Aids wave in the mid 1980s he made modern Vanitas still lives. Ross Bleckner attained some fame and had his first museum exhibition in 1988.
After further series that Ross Bleckner made in the 1980s and 1990s ("Constellation paintings"; "Architecture of the Sky canvases"), the painter created the first couple of his famous "Cell paintings" in the early 1990s. The microscopic view on organic cell structures has since been a predominant theme of Ross Bleckner's art and led to highly aesthetical and subtle paintings. In the acclaimed series "Bird paintings", made between 1995 and 2003, Ross Bleckner used birds as a motif.
In 1995 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum showed a large Ross Bleckner retrospective. Numerous further exhibitions deliver proof of Ross Bleckner's international fame.
Ross Bleckner lives and works in his hometown New York.