A Conversation with Alejandro Javaloyas
A Studio Visit During the La BIBI Residency
Ryan Gander
b. 1976, British
- By Sylvia Walker
Ryan Gander is a contemporary artist living and working in Suffolk and London, United Kingdom. Born in 1976, Gander is described as a conceptual artist, although he has refuted this term and claims to be rather a ‘neo-conceptualist’ with a ‘no style’-style.
The British artist has established an international reputation during the first two decades of the 21st century with his eclectic oeuvre that defies categorization. The artist encompasses sculpture, film, writing, graphic design, installation, performance, architecture, public interventions, and more. This complex body of work is characterized by a questioning of knowledge, language, the process, and the appearance of a work of art. His oeuvre can be seen as a giant puzzle, a network, a set of hidden clues and connections inviting the viewer to decipher and give meaning.
A central element throughout his oeuvre is ‘absence.’ Although his works are highly conceptual, smart, intellectual, and often filled with humor, they also seem to reside in an enigmatic aura of absence. One could even say melancholy in some cases. Since the turn of the millennium, Gander has exhibited internationally in Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Austria, China, Japan, South Korea, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, and more. In 2011 he was part of the 54th International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia.
Other important shows at major institutions were at the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (MUMOK), Vienna; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Aspen Art Museum and more. His oeuvre features in various important public and private collections such as Tate Britain, London, the Zabludowicz Collection, London, Kadist, Paris, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf or Fondazione Morra, Naples.
Gander completed a research residency in Maastricht at the Jan van Eyck Akademie and the Rijksakademie residency program in Amsterdam. He has won multiple important prizes, such as the Zürich Art Prize in 2009, the ABN Amro Art Price in 2006, the Dutch ‘ Prix de Rome’ in 2003, or the Baloise Art Statements of the Art Basel in 2006. Gander is ranked top 1.000 globally and top 100 in the United Kingdom on Artfacts.[1] As a result, Gander is featured among The Most Influential Young Artists Today.
Artworks
Notes:
[1] Artfacts, Ryan Gander at https://artfacts.net/artist/ryan-gander/35609 consulted 17/11/2020.
Last Updated on August 25, 2023
Sylvia Walker
Sylvia Walker (b. 1986, US) is an art historian, essayist, art critic, and curator. After contributing to numerous publications, and curating exhibitions in the United States of America and beyond, she currently works as the assistant director of Contemporary Art Issue (CAI).
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