Veronica Ryan

Born 1956

Veronica Ryan was born in Montserrat and moved with her parents to Britain as a young child. She studied first at St. Albans College of Art and Design, at the Bath Academy of Art between 1975 and 1978, at the Slade School of Fine Art between 1978 and 1980 and at University College and the School for Oriental and African Studies between 1981 and 1983. Her work was included in numerous important exhibitions in the 1980s, including the 1983 Black Women Time Now at the Battersea Arts Centre, and the 1985 The Thin Black Line at the ICA, both curated by Lubaina Himid. In 1986 Ryan was included in and co-selected (with Sonia Boyce and Gavin Jantjes) the exhibition From Two Worlds at the Whitechapel Gallery, touring to the Fruitmarket in Edinburgh. In 1986/87, Ryan was artist-in-residence at Kettle’s Yard and Jesus College, Cambridge. As well as a solo exhibition at the end of the residency, Ryan curated a group show mid-way through, which included works by Zarina Bhimji and Mona Hatoum. At this time, Ryan was exploring the tension between inner and outer forms. With its vessel within a vessel, Territories utilises some of the same forms from her sculpture of the period. She writes, ‘I am trying through my work to explore concerns with boundaries, where boundaries occupy a very particular territory. There is a sense in which it isn’t always apparent where something begins or ends. This introduces the question of identities, both cultural, historical and psychological.’ Ryan is based between New York and the UK, and her sculptural and installation work examines environmental concerns, personal narratives and memories, as well as the wider psychological implications of history, trauma and recovery.  Solo exhibitions of Ryan’s work have been staged at the Camden Arts Centre (1995), Tate St. Ives (2000) and Spike Island (2021), and Ryan was awarded the Turner Prize in 2022.