Veronica Ryan: Retrieval

Paula Cooper, 521 W 21st Street New York · Chelsea

Exhibition on view: Oct 16, 2025 - Dec 13, 2025

Paula Cooper Gallery presents Veronica Ryan: Retrieval, an exhibition exploring memory, healing, and transformation through sculptural assemblages. Using materials like bronze, ceramic, salt, and found objects, Ryan examines cultural inheritance and ecological awareness. Her unconventional arrangements question boundaries of inside and outside, object and memory, culminating in Archaeology of the Black Sun 1956–2002, a deeply personal installation.

Artist

Veronica Ryan

Veronica Ryan (b. 1956, Montserrat) is a British sculptor known for poetic works that explore memory, migration, and cultural identity through organic forms and materials. Drawing on her Caribbean heritage, she uses seeds, fruit, and natural objects in sculptures that evoke absence, containment, and transformation. Ryan studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and SOAS. In 2021, she created the UK’s first permanent public sculpture by a Black female artist, honoring the Windrush generation. She won the Turner Prize in 2022 for her subtle yet powerful contributions to contemporary sculpture. Ryan lives and works in London and New York.

Works

Artworks in this exhibition