Ryan Gander

Ryan Gander (b. 1976) is an English artist, born in Chester, who lives and works between London and Suffolk. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2017. His edition for Agricola Due Leoni features the fingerprints of the artist's daughter, Olive, and her own invented word definition, on the front panel.

The joy of working with Ryan Gander is only matched by the ease with which a collaboration with this British artist took place. In a way, its technical realization was the most difficult part. Gander has always perplexed curator Cornelia, in a way that elicited her curiosity and the desire to create a project together. His works oscillate between technological marvels such as a speaking robotic mouse, to forays in fashion and architecture that show the acutely refined taste of the artist, and his enjoyment of material culture. ranging from sneakers to potted plants to vending machines. The profundity of Gander’s work, which tackles such topics as time, value, labor, commodity, luxury, progress, and more, is second to none. For the work with Agricola Due Leoni, Gander riffed on the definitions of conceptual maestro/mentor Joseph Kosuth, but spun them in a familial, personal, invented, and less authoritarian way, showing the path for the avantgarde in a new identity politics, extending definitions beyond Webster’s alone. The edition was premiered in 2018 at the laboratory kitchen of Miss Dado, in Turin, and has been featured in various culinary contexts, such as the kitchen of chef Mark Hix. Cornelia has worked with Gander before, in the context of a book publication, and has long admired his practice of syllogisms and parables.