Ryan Gander
ISSUE 9
August - October, 2009
Having completed a research residency at the Jan van Eyck Akademie in Maastricht, Gander participated in the artists’ residency program of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. His first solo exhibition was held in March 2002 at the ’International 3’ Gallery in Manchester, accompanied by a monograph entitled ’In a language you don’t understand’. In 2003, Gander published the artists’ book ’Appendix’, produced a solo exhibition for the ’Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam’ and won the ’Prix de Rome’ for sculpture (the national Dutch art prize). In 2004 a children’s storybook ’The Boy Who Always Looked Up’ written by the artist will be published with Cornerhouse in Manchester.
In 2007, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and MUMOK, Vienna, Taro Nasu Gallery, Tokyo, and CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco hosted solo shows, while group exhibitions included the Lyon Biennale, Centre d’art contemporain, Geneva and mima Middlesborough. 2007 also marked the year of a research sabbatical, with no new work being exhibited until a major touring solo show.
’Heralded as the new black’, opened in January 2008 at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham and moved on to the South London Gallery, London and is soon to visit the Boijmanns in Rotterdam. This year has been increasingly vibrant, with new works being shown in group exhibitions at the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, the Sydney Biennial, the Whitstable Biennale and the touring show ’Wouldn’t it be nice... wishful thinking in art and design’ which has visited Zurich and Geneva and due to open at Somerset House in London. Solo shows this year also include ’Something Vague’ which opened at the Kunsthalle, St Gallen and recently moved to Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn. ’Championed by Vigour’ was hosted this month at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, STORE in London and Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam are both scheduled for solo shows this year.
Gander was awarded the 2007 Paul Hamlyn Award for Visual Arts, in 2006 won the ABN AMRO prize of the Netherlands and in 2005 he was short listed for the British art Prize ’Becks Futures’ at the ICA in London and won the Baloise Art Statement Prize at Art Basel.
Alongside his artistic production, Ryan was recently invited to guest curate the Art now space. He instigated a show called ’The way in which it landed’, after selecting works for the Tate Collection and situating them alongside works by invited artists. He is also a visiting lecturer at a selection of art and design schools within Europe and writes regularly for art and design periodicals.
Gander now lives and works in London and is represented by Store Gallery, London, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.