Catherine Ryan was born and raised in New Jersey. She moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1996 and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the California College of the Arts in 2000. Her work has been published in the books 100 Artists of the West Coast and Downy Bird Art Kingdom, and will be featured in the 2008 Pacific Coast Edition of New American Paintings, curated by Rita Gonzalez (Assistant Curator, Special Exhibitions, Los Angeles County Museum of Art).