Ross Bleckner was born in New York City and raised in Hewlett, on Long Island. He received a Bachelor of Arts from New York University in 1971, and a Master of Fine Arts from Cal Arts in 1973.
Bleckner has exhibited throughout the United States and Internationally at venues such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; ICA, Philadelphia; Kunsthalle, Zurich; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin; Reina Sofia, Madrid; L.A. County Museum, Los Angeles; Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern; and his work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of Art, New York, among others.
For seventeen years, Bleckner served as the president of the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America, a non-profit, community based, AIDS research and treatment center. And in 2009 he was awarded the title of Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations for his work helping to rehabilitate child soldiers in northern Uganda.
Ross Bleckner lives and works in East Hampton, NY, and New York City.