Veronica Ryan

Veronica Ryan OBE (b. 1956, Plymouth, Montserrat) has engaged with issues of history, dislocation, and belonging throughout her career. In meticulously handcrafted works composed of materials that reference her Afro-Caribbean heritage and upbringing in the U.K., Ryan examines the psychology and semantics of perception, and experiences of place, home, memory, and loss. Ryan’s first one-person exhibition was at Arnolfini, Bristol in 1987. Other important one-person shows have been presented at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (1988); Camden Arts Centre (1995); Aldrich Museum (1996); Salena Gallery, Brooklyn (2005); Tate St Ives (2000, 2005 and 2017); The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh (2011); The Art House, Wakefield, Yorkshire, England (2017); and Spike Island, Bristol (2021). In June 2020, Hackney Council commissioned Ryan to create sculptures celebrating Hackney’s Windrush Generation—the first permanent public artworks to do so in the UK—which were unveiled in October 2021. Her work is in public collections including the Arts Council Collection, Contemporary Art Society, Sainsbury’s Collection, Tate Collection, The Hepworth Wakefield, and the Weltkunst Collection at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Ryan currently lives and works in both New York and the U.K.