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Artists · Ryan Gander

Ryan Gander

British artist, born in Chester in 1976. He lives and works in Suffolk and London. He works across sculpture, film, writing, graphic design, installation and performance. His work plays on what the viewer is told and what is held back.

Published by ArtisDomus, written by Polina Surina.

Ryan Gander, portrait: a man in a dark cap and hooded sweatshirt with round metal-framed glasses, turned to the camera, green light falling across the wall behind him.
Ryan Gander.
01/05
A square brass panel fixed flush to a white wall with four screws, a round button at its centre, and a slot below it from which a white printed slip curls out.
Pl. 01 Ryan Gander. Untouched Ideas Machine, 2025. Untarnished brass, thermal receipt printer, button, 30 × 30 × 0,2 cm. The work holds two thousand ideas and prints one when the button is pressed. The slip in the photograph reads Manifesto starting with same word.

Biography

An OBE, a Royal Academician and Professor of Visual Art at Huddersfield.

Ryan Gander was born in Chester in 1976 and lives and works in Suffolk and London. He studied at Manchester Metropolitan University, the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and the Jan van Eyck Akademie in Maastricht. He works across sculpture, film, writing, graphic design, installation and performance.

His Untouched Ideas Machine, from 2025, is a square of untarnished brass with a button and a thermal receipt printer. It holds two thousand ideas and prints one each time the button is pressed. He was appointed OBE for services to contemporary art in 2017. In 2022 he became a Royal Academician in the category of Sculpture.

Born
1976, Chester, United Kingdom
Based
Suffolk and London
Education
Manchester Metropolitan University. Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Jan van Eyck Akademie, Maastricht.
Honours
Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to contemporary art, 2017. Hodder Fellowship, Princeton University, 2019. Royal Academician in the category of Sculpture, 2022.
Teaching
Professor of Visual Art, University of Huddersfield. Honorary Doctor of the Arts, Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Suffolk.
Solo exhibitions
A selection of twenty, from 2014 to 2025.
Public collections
Thirty-seven institutions.
02/05

Solo exhibitions

From Manchester in 2014 to The Hague and Hakone in 2025.

2025
  • Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, Netherlands
  • Pola Museum of Art, Hakone, Japan
2024
  • Museo Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain
2023
  • Ishikawa Cultural Foundation, Okayama, Japan
  • The Little House, Los Angeles, United States
2022
  • Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
  • East Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts, Norwich, United Kingdom
2021
  • Space K Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea
2019
  • Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland
2018
  • BASE / Progetti per l’arte, Florence, Italy
2017
  • Dazaifu Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan
  • Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada
  • The Contemporary Austin, Austin, United States
  • National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
2016
  • Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium
  • Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, United States
2015
  • Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
  • Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Australia
  • Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore
2014
  • Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom
The artist seated in a wheelchair in a white gallery, four small bright panel works spaced along the wall behind him.
Pl. 02 Ryan Gander. Installation view, the artist in the room with his work.
03/05

Public collections

Public collections in France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and beyond.

France
  • Pinault Collection, Paris
  • Carré d’Art, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Nîmes
  • Fnac, Paris
  • FRAC Haute-Normandie, Rouen
  • FRAC Île-de-France, Paris
  • FRAC Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Calais
  • Kadist Art Foundation, Paris
  • LVMH Foundation, Paris
United Kingdom
  • Tate Collection, London
  • Arts Council Collection, London
  • British Council Collection, London
  • Government Art Collection, London
  • National Museum Wales, Cardiff
United States
  • Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
  • Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
  • Rose Art Museum, Waltham
  • The Contemporary Austin, Austin
Japan
  • National Gallery of Art, Osaka
  • Ishikawa Collection, Okayama
  • Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine Museum, Fukuoka
Elsewhere
  • Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
  • Voorlinden Museum, Wassenaar, Netherlands
  • Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
  • Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich
  • MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt
  • Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna
  • Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal
  • Remai Modern, Saskatoon
  • Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona
  • Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City
  • Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City
  • Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, Warsaw
  • National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
  • Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
  • Space K, Seoul
04/05

Portraits

The artist in the gallery.

Portraits by Rian Davidson of Port Blue Studio.

The artist in his wheelchair beside a pale wall, green light falling across it from the right.
Pl. 03 Ryan Gander. The artist at the wall, green light from the right.
The artist in the gallery with two bright panel works on the wall behind him and a black cat standing at his side.
Pl. 04 Ryan Gander. In the gallery, with works behind him and a cat at his side.
The artist seated in the foreground, out of focus, the same gallery behind him: panel works along the wall and a black cat on the floor.
Pl. 05 Ryan Gander. In the same room, the works on the wall behind him.
05/05

Read next

Sources

  • Lisson Gallery, artist page for Ryan Gander
  • Esther Schipper, work page for Untouched Ideas Machine