Bleckner notably tackled the emotional toll brought by the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. “Life is short. Life goes fast,” he has said. “And what I really want to do in my life is to bring something new, something beautiful and something filled with light into the world.”

His poetic works often employ recurring symbolic imagery, such as candelabras, doves, and flowers, rendered with a blurred, glowing sense of light. Bleckner began exhibiting with Mary Boone Gallery in 1979 and was the subject of a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1995.

His work can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others.

Beyond his impact on the art world, Bleckner has contributed significantly to philanthropy. He served as president of AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA) for ten years and has worked with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Northern Uganda to rehabilitate and raise funds for ex-child soldiers. In May 2009, he was named a Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations.

Recent exhibitions include "Architecture of the Sky" at the Bohme Chapel in Cologne, featuring works from 1992–2013, and "Ross Bleckner: Find a Peaceful Place Where You Can Make Plans for the Future," a survey exhibition at the Dallas Contemporary.