Ross Cunningham has worked in the creative industry for over twenty-five years. After studying architecture, he moved into commercial graphic design and went on to establish a London-based design agency in 2009. Since then, he has worked across a range of sectors, operating as lead creative director on various international brand identity programmes.

This background informs his painting practice, where bold graphic elements and a strong sense of architectural form are evident in the compositions. Works are often developed through a considered pre-production process, combining traditional sketching with digital methods refined through years of commercial design practice. 

Influenced heavily by the modernist art movements of the twentieth century, of particular interest is the threshold between abstraction and representation, specifically the tension between an expressive painterly freedom and an underpinning architectural order.

Having grown up on the Northern Irish coastline, Cunningham frequently draws subject matter directly from the sea. A sense of escapism runs through much of the work, whether expressed through nostalgic references or through the exploration of iconic and faith-related narratives.