Bob Thompson (b. Kentucky, 1937 – d. Rome, Italy, 1966)

Bob Thompson was an African-American figurative painter known for his bold and colorful canvases, whose compositions were influenced by the Old Masters. His art has been described as synthesizing Baroque and Renaissance masterpieces with the jazz-influenced Abstract Expressionist movement. He was prolific in his eight-year career, producing more than 1,000 works before his death in Rome in 1966. In 1965, he created this portrait of Nina Simone from life in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Thompson has earned critical acclaim, and a major retrospective of his work was mounted at the Whitney Museum in 1998. In 2022, the Hammer Museum, Colby College Museum of Art, Smart Museum of Art, and High Museum of Art organized an important traveling exhibition of his work. Thompson’s work is in numerous private and public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Minneapolis Institute of Art, among others.

Ralph Fasanella (b. New York, NY, 1914 – d. Yonkers, NY, 1997)
Ralph Fasanella was an American self-taught painter whose large, detailed works depict urban working life and critique post-World War II America. Fasanella was born in the Bronx and grew up in the working-class neighborhoods of New York. He became a tireless advocate for laborers’ rights, first as a union organizer and later as a painter. His parents were Italian immigrants who taught their son about both the costs and rewards of hard work. As a child, Fasanella labored long hours on tough streets with his father on an ice delivery route. His mother made sure he encountered people whose lives were harder than their own and taught him the value of empathy and respect. He learned that family and community came before personal gain, that younger generations stood on the shoulders of those who came before them, and that all Americans should fight for their rights—themes that would later resonate in his works.

Fasanella took up painting in 1945, working in the garment industry, as a truck driver, ice delivery man, union organizer and gas station owner before devoting himself to painting full-time in the 1970s. Untrained as an artist, Fasanella developed an astute and accessible style that reflected his affiliation with and commitment to the working class, often using symbolic imagery that dealt with themes of struggle, endurance, and social justice. Fasanella’s work has been widely celebrated and is included in numerous private collections as well as the collections of the American Folk Art Museum, Fenimore Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others.

Cindy Sullivan (b. Los Angeles, CA, 1964)
Cindy Sullivan (Los Angeles, CA, b. 1964) lives and works in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Ten years ago, at the age of 51, she felt compelled to begin painting after seeing a colorful family photo. Sullivan had previously only experimented with mosaic tiles while living in Portland, OR, and had written a book on finding purpose through dogs, called Guided by Love. Now Sullivan creates acrylic paintings that conjure a nostalgia based on California lifestyles of the 1960s and 70s. While her work conveys a longing for a slower pace of life, quiet moments, and sunny landscapes, many of the images appear as though there may be something ominous lurking just off frame. Due to the ways in which she constructs figures, spaces, shapes, and light, the resulting effects often seem cinematic and can possess a somewhat eerie, mysterious, or surreal quality. This is Sullivan’s debut exhibition with The Ruffed Grouse Gallery and at the Outsider Art Fair in New York. She has exhibited regionally in western Oregon and has received awards for her work, as it continues to garner critical attention from the greater art world.

Little Walt Dog (b. Compton, CA, 1957)
L.W.D. aka Little Walt Dog is a painter and sculptor living and working in Los Angeles, California. Little Walt Dog, a Los Angeles native, grew up in the neighborhoods of Watts, Compton, Gardena, and Torrance. Immersed in the vibrant culture of rock & roll and classic cars, L.W.D. found inspiration in LA’s expansive and dynamic scene. As a young boy, he was also greatly impacted by what he witnessed during the Watts riots of 1965. Shortly after high school, he enlisted in the army in 1975, serving in Germany. Returning to Los Angeles, the 90s marked a significant turning point in L.W.D.'s life, culminating in a 30-year sentence. His release in 2019 became a moment of profound transformation. Shortly after returning home, L.W.D. was captivated by live painting at a community event, where he saw paint being pushed and pulled across a canvas, free from rules and restrictions. This has since inspired a voluminous output of drawings, paintings, and found-material sculptures. L.W.D.'s work addresses a spectrum of subjects, from nostalgic California cruising, to L.A.’s social tension and police surveillance, to the game of basketball as a great unifier. He infuses each piece with personal narratives around struggle and resilience that open into broader human experiences, all while maintaining a sense of joy, humor, and authenticity. The Ruffed Grouse Gallery is proud to present L.W.D’s work in New York for the first time. He has recently presented his multidisciplinary works in solo exhibitions at Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles; Sade Gallery, Los Angeles; and Nationale, Portland, OR. His work is also on view alongside contemporary artists such as Marina Abramović, Frank Bowling, Awol Erizku, Suzanne Jackson, Ming Smith, Jacolby Satterwhite, and Cecilia Vicuña at the Historic Hampton House in Miami, FL through February 2025. His work continues to garner attention and support from a number of prestigious curators, institutions, and internationally recognized artists.