Veronica Ryan, awarded the 2022 Turner Prize, is a visual artist working primarily in sculpture and assemblage. Using a highly developed idiosyncratic visual language, Ryan’s work investigates how everyday objects, particularly foods such as fruits, vegetables and seeds, having been cast in various materials, elicit a wealth of histories and meanings. In 2021 Ryan unveiled ‘Custard Apple (Annonaceae)’, ‘Breadfruit (Moraceae)’ and ‘Soursop (Annonaceae)’ in Hackney, London, as the nation’s first permanent monument to honour the Windrush generation. In 2018, Ryan along with Spike Island, Bristol, UK, was awarded the prestigious Freelands award by the Freelands Foundation. This culminated in her critically acclaimed exhibition ‘Along a Spectrum’ in 2021, which together with the first permanent monument to honour the Windrush generation, led to her nomination for the 2022 Turner Prize.

Veronica Ryan, born in 1956, Plymouth, Montserrat, lives and works between London, UK, and New York, US.

Ryan will be included in the forthcoming ‘Thinking Historically in the Present’, Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah, UAE (2023). Recent solo exhibitions include Alison Jacques, London, UK (2022); ‘Along a Spectrum’, Spike Island, Bristol, UK (2021); ‘Veronica Ryan: Salvage’, The Art House, Wakefield, UK (2017). Recent group exhibitions include ‘Turner Prize 2022’, Tate Liverpool, UK; ‘Quiet as It’s Kept’, Whitney Biennial 2022, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US; ‘A Clearing in the Forest’, Tate Modern, London, UK (2022); ‘Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945’, organised by Arts Council Collection, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK (2021); ‘Unquiet Moments: Capturing the everyday’, Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, London, UK (2020)

Ryan’s work has been acquired by museum collections including Tate, London (UK); Arts Council Collection, London, (UK); Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (UK); The Sainsbury Centre Collection, Norwich (UK) and The Hepworth Wakefield (UK) and The Weltkunst Collection at IMMA, Dublin (Ireland).