RYAN GANDER OBE RA
1976 Chester, UK.
Ryan Gander has established an international reputation through artworks
that materialise in many different forms, ranging from sculpture, apparel and
writing to architecture, painting, typefaces, publications and performance. As
well as curating exhibitions, he is a committed educator, having taught at
international art institutions and universities, and has written and presented
television programmes on and about contemporary art and culture for the
BBC.
Through associative thought processes that connect the everyday and the
esoteric, the overlooked and the commonplace, Gander’s work involves a
questioning of language and knowledge, as well as a reinvention of both the
modes of appearance and the creation of an artwork. His work can be
reminiscent of a puzzle, or a network with multiple connections and the
fragments of an embedded story. It is ultimately a huge set of hidden clues to
be deciphered, encouraging viewers to make their own associations and
invent their own narrative in order to unravel the complexities staged by the
artist.
Ryan Gander is an artist living and working in Suffolk. He studied at
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, the Rijksakademie van Beeldende
Kunsten, Amsterdam, NL and the Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht, NL.
The artist has been a Professor of Visual Art at the Universities of
Huddersfield and Suffolk and holds an honorary Doctor of the Arts at the
Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Suffolk. In 2017 he
was awarded an OBE for services to contemporary arts. In 2019 he was
awarded the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University. In 2022, he was
made RA for the category of Sculpture.