Born in 1956 in Plymouth, Montserrat and raised in England, Veronica Ryan OBE, RA creates meticulously handcrafted work using a wide range of materials, including bronze, plaster, marble, textile, and found objects. Her sculptures and installations examine environmental concerns, personal narratives and memories, as well as the wider psychological implications of history, trauma and recovery.
Ryan has studied at St. Albans College of Art and Design, Bath Academy of Art in Corsham Court, The Slade School of Art at University College, London, and The School of Oriental and African Studies at London University. Over her forty-year career, she has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and residencies within the U.K., the U.S., and abroad. Her first one-person exhibition was at Arnolfini, Bristol in 1987. Other important one-person shows have been presented at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (1988), Camden Arts Centre (1995), Aldrich Museum (1996), Salena Gallery, Brooklyn (2005), Tate St Ives (2000, 2005 and 2017), The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh (2011), and The Art House, Wakefield, Yorkshire, England (2017). In 2022, Ryan was included in the Whitney Biennial and awarded the Turner Prize, one the most prestigious prizes for visual arts in the United Kingdom. Her work is in many private and public collections such as the Tate Collection, the Brooklyn Museum, the Arts Council Collection, Contemporary Art Society, Sainsbury’s Collection, the Hepworth Wakefield, and the Weltkunst Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Ryan currently lives and works both in New York and in the U.K.
Veronica Ryan
Plastered House, mid 2000s
plasters, plywood, mesh
14 1/2 x 9 x 9 in. (36.8 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm)
Veronica Ryan
Revisited, 2023
plaster, crochet thread, bandage, pins
10 x 9 1/2 x 6 in. (25.4 x 24.1 x 15.2 cm)
Veronica Ryan
Remnant Cloth, 2022
hydrocal, fabric
7 x 6 1/2 x 8 in. (17.8 x 16.5 x 20.3 cm)
Veronica Ryan
Between A Rock and A Hard Place, 2022
metal, glass, paper plates, glue, hydrocal, fabric, thread, orange peel, embroidery ring, custard apple and soursop seeds, sculpey, batting, plastic net, plastic bottles and elastic band
123 1/4 x 42 x 28 1/2 in. (313.1 x 106.7 x 72.4 cm)
Veronica Ryan
In Vacuo, 2000
photographic print, acrylic, ink and thread on card stock
11 x 16 3/4 in. (27.9 x 42.5 cm)
framed: 13 1/4 x 19 x 1 1/4 in. (33.7 x 48.3 x 3.2 cm)
Veronica Ryan
Entangle/Disentanglement, 2017-2022
fossilized coral, bandage, bronze, crocheted fishing line, sculpy, tea stained hydrocal, thread, Portuguese pink marble, hair net, pin cushion, pins, stainless steel hook and metal
dimensions variable
shelf: 3 x 48 x 12 in. (7.6 x 121.9 x 30.5 cm)
Veronica Ryan
Pouch, 2020
red netting containing stitched dried orange peels, black thread
5 1/2 x 7 7/8 x 6 3/8 in. (14 x 20 x 16 cm)
Photo: Max McClure. Courtesy Spike Island, Bristol.
Veronica Ryan
In Extremis, Obliterate, Oblivions, 1998
acrylic and ink print on paper
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. (21.6 x 14 cm)
Veronica Ryan
Slade, 1980
Kaffir-D plaster, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, seeds, thread, wood
approx. 50 x 12 x 6 in. (127 x 30.4 x 15.2 cm)
Veronica Ryan
Liminal Spaces, Feathers In Her Head, Sewing Seeds 2, 2019
as installed in "Portable Sculpture," Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, U.K., February - August, 2021.
Photo: John McKenzie.
Veronica Ryan
Arrangement In Layers, Stacking Up Moments I-X, 2016-2019
recycled avocado trays, seeds, dark blue and orange wool and cotton crochet, metal, dimensions variable
Collection: Tate Modern
Veronica Ryan featured on the occasion of her upcoming Freelands Award exhibition "Along a Spectrum" at Spike Island in Bristol, UK.
Along a Spectrum at Spike Island, your Freelands Award exhibition which opens in May 2021, will be your second show in Bristol. You stayed in the city for an extended residency as part of the project. How did the city affect you and your work?
It’s impossible for me to do a residency in a particular place without being aware of its history. I think I always see connections within the socio-political environment as well as in a place’s history. The deconstructing of ideas in my mind relates to how I arrive at conversations in my work. I have quite a fondness for Bristol: it isn’t far away from Corsham (Bath Academy of Art) where I went to art school, and I always remembered the [Clifton] Suspension Bridge. WO So, these connections were important. They made the place feel familiar and enabled me to have a closer connection to its incredible history and historical connections. I became particularly aware of Bristol’s history of medieval trade and the unique stone architecture, which is something that I drew on in my work. During a residency at Porthmeor Studios in St Ives, Cornwall, before my residency at Spike Island, I saw the fishermen making their nets. It was interesting to see how close this process was to crochet and knitting. I liked that element of craft and the idea that the same structure had these different purposes. This carried on in Bristol, where I would walk along the river and be reminded of the kind of knots used there.
