Kathleen Ryan’s (b. 1984, Santa Monica, California) sculptures destabilize the symbolic and sentimental values of everyday objects. Desire, mortality, and pop-cultural artifacts take both new and familiar forms through Ryan’s deft plays of material and scale. Delicate, sensual grapes are cast in heavy, utilitarian concrete; mold spreading on a slice of beaded fruit is composed of gemstones like malachite and agate—her materials are often at odds with the subjects they represent. Her sculptures’ forms also shapeshift, generating unexpected affinities and associations: car fenders are curled into the shape of a shell; a bowling ball is an oyster’s pearl; a truck engine is both a peach pit and a beating heart. Ryan lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.
