Exhibit features colorful abstracts of Ryan Mulligan

• UC art professor displays paintings, collages, 3D pieces at Westheimer Gallery

The Westheimer Gallery is showcasing work from an artist whose paintings, collages and three-dimensional pieces reflect the creative complexity that are a signature of Ryan Mulligan’s work.

The University of Cincinnati art professor will display his paintings and collages at the Sharonville Fine Arts Center gallery, 11165 Reading Road, through October.

Mulligan’s work includes short films focused on neighborhood relationships as well as interactive displays inspired by his son, Hobbs, who is autistic.

Art comes wherever Mulligan is: at home, in his basement, on the sofa and in the kitchen, among the daily activities of his family.

“My kids and my wife interrupt me, but that’s part of the fun,” he said in an email. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Hobbs is an inspiration, and Mulligan sees parallels between father and son.

“I draw to think through things in my hands,” the artist said. “My son balances a plastic cup on a tray for 10 minutes to calm himself down enough to eat dinner.

“We both have silly ways of navigating the world when you get down to it.”

His observations: of his son, of his own creative process, of the interaction of other people with Hobbs, impact his art.

“No one really looks at my son when he signs thank you,” Mulligan said. “Even though I announce it with ‘Hobbs, can you say thank you to the nice lady?’

“They don’t look up, and it bothers me.”

Mulligan said his abstract art is a private conversation that balances unimportant things in a physical space.

“Autism, among other much more important things, means you can focus so fully on something that the universe evaporates,” he said. “I think about that a lot when I’m building a space in cut paper and paint.”

Mulligan’s exhibit at the Westheimer Gallery opens Oct. 3, and can be viewed through October on Thursdays and Fridays, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.