about

Bryson Iacoboni was born and raised in Baltimore County, Maryland. He has always been interested in drawing from a young age. In elementary school, Bryson and his family moved to a neighborhood in Fallston, Maryland. Through other neighborhood kids, Bryson discovered skateboarding. Everything about skateboarding was fascinating; the self expression through movement, the creativity, and the artwork. Studying skateboarding culture through magazines and skate videos expanded his view of what was possible with art. Like skateboarding, art could be messy, weird, dangerous. This was, and still is a major influence on his style.

Bryson attended McDonogh School in Owings Mills, MD for middle and high school. The arts programs at McDonogh gave Bryson the resources and opportunities to experiment with different mediums, including photography. After graduating from McDonogh, Bryson attended Catholic University of America in Washington, DC to study architecture. One part of architecture Bryson particularly enjoyed studying was history of architecture. He began to notice that all of these many great architects would create compelling pieces of art through different mediums as inspiration for their architectural work. After seeing these precedents, Bryson began to incorporate more artwork into his architecture studio projects to express the metaphorical themes and feelings inherent in his designs. Oftentimes it would be mentioned in critiques that the parti of gestural representations were well conveyed in Bryson’s projects and presentations. Bryson graduated from Catholic University in 2009. Later that year he moved to Boston, MA to attend the Boston Architectural College and received a Master’s degree in Architecture. Bryson continued to incorporate more art-centric sketches and collages throughout his work at the BAC. Ultimately, Bryson’s thesis project was predicated on designing a building dedicated to skateboarding.

After earning his Master’s degree, Bryson worked in an architecture firm in Somerville, MA. He continued to sketch and make small scale artwork in his free time. In 2019, Bryson and his partner Helen decided to move to Washington, DC. During the early portions of the pandemic, Bryson decided to dedicate more time to creating art and further developing his abilities. Bryson began experimenting with markers on paper, which helped him learn more about color, light, and shadow. This laid the foundation for Bryson to start drawing with increased realism and accuracy, particularly in portraits and figure drawing. Starting to feel more comfortable with these principles, Bryson began painting. He found that acrylic paint had similar properties to markers such as an ability to create hard edges and distinct layers of color. This has evolved into the large scale paintings and mixed medium pieces that Bryson has recently produced. Bryson continues to find ways for his art to evolve and has recently begun experimenting with oil paints in his pieces.