A conversation between Ryan Gander and curator Mark Lanctôt took place on Tuesday, March 1 at 6 p.m. as part of Make every show like it’s your last, a solo exhibition touring in Canada, the United States and in Europe.
Ryan Gander has established an international reputation through thoughtfully playful (or playfully thoughtful) conceptual artworks in such different media as sculpture, film, photography, writing, graphic design, installation and performance art. Gander’s work connects the everyday to the esoteric, and questions language and experience (both shared and individual) as he challenges how things appear to us as artworks. Evoking puzzles or riddles, his works often assemble fragments of an unknown back story that reveals itself through sets of clues to be deciphered, encouraging viewers to invent their own narratives and find their own solutions.
Le Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal would like to express its gratitude to the OCAD University, Toronto for its support.
Biography
Born in 1976 in Chester, U.K., Ryan Gander is one of Britain’s most prolific and engaging artists. Recent solo exhibitions include READ ONLY, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Portrait of a blind artist obscured by flowers, Singapore Tyler Print Institute (2015); Nobody Walks Away from True collaboration Triumphant or Un-bruised (collaboration with Mario Garcia Torres), Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City (2015); Esperluette, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); Boing, Boing, Squirt, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2012); Approach it slowly from the left, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2010); and Intervals, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010). He has also participated in major group shows such as: British Art Show 8, Leeds Art Gallery (2015); L’avenir (looking forward), La Biennale de Montréal (2014); Shanghai Biennale (2012); dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel (2012); ILLUMInations, 54th Venice Biennale (2011); 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2008); and Sydney Biennial (2008). Ryan Gander has received a number of prestigious awards: Zurich Art Prize (2009), ABN AMRO Art Prize (2006), Baloise Art Prize (2006) and the Dutch Prix de Rome for sculpture (2003).
