Sophie Ryder

Sophie Ryder (born 1963) is a British sculptor, painter, printmaker and collagist known for her large wire structures. Ryder typically uses bronze, wet plaster embedded with found materials, sheet metal, marble, and stained glass.

Biography Sophie Ryder was born in London, England, in 1963. She studied combined arts at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1981 to 1984, focusing initially on painting. She changed her focus when the Royal Academy's director, Sir Hugh Casson, encouraged her skills development in sculpture.

Works

Ryder's sculptures sometimes represent mystical creatures, animals and hybrid beings created in assemblages of materials such as sawdust, wet plaster, obsolete machinery, toys, weld joins, wire 'pancakes', torn scraps of paper and charcoal sticks. Her iconography includes the character of the Lady Hare, which she sees as a counterpart to Ancient Greek mythology's Minotaur. Her most known piece is the Lady Hare, a hare with a female human body. The works have been commended for questioning human relationships to the natural and folkloric worlds while contemplating dualities of perception.

In 1994, a depiction of five minotaurs was excluded from an exhibition at Winchester Cathedral because the sculpture included genitalia as part of the anatomy.

Ryder has stated, "I don't sit and contemplate what it is I am trying to achieve. My head is full of ideas all the time. It is part of my life. I don't plan anything, it just comes." Similarly, when asked about the prominence of hares in her work, the artist stated, "it's the same as asking me why I make sculptures, and the answer is because I feel driven to. So it's difficult to always pin down reasons. My introduction to hares was when my lurcher dog would proudly bring hares home and drop them at my feet."

Solo shows Source:

1987

Edward Totah Gallery, London Courcoux & Courcoux Gallery, Salisbury Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury

1988

St. Paul's Gallery, Leeds Courcoux & Courcoux Gallery, Salisbury

1990

Newport City Museum & Art Gallery, Newport, Gwent Courcoux & Courcoux Gallery, Salisbury Henley Festival, Henley-on-Thames Berkeley Square Gallery, Landon

1991

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield

1992

Courcoux & Courcoux Gallery, Salisbury

1994

Winchester Cathedral, Inner Close, Winchester Red House Museum & Gardens, Christchurch, Dorset The Allen Gallery (Garden), Aton, Hampshire

1995

Berkeley Square Gallery, London

1996

Belloc Lowndes Gallery, Chicago

1997

O'Hara Gallery, New York Berkeley Square Gallery, London

1998

Courcoux & Courcoux Gallery, Salisbury

1999

Berkeley Square Gallery, London Victoria Art Gallery, Bath

2000

Berkeley Square Gallery, London Odapark, Venray, The Netherlands Courcoux & Courcoux Gallery, Salisbury Buschlon Mowatt Galleries, Vancouver BC

2001

Galerie de Bellefeuile, Montréal

2002

Metropole Galleries, Folkestone, Kent, UK Courcoux & Courcoux Galley, Salisbury

2003

Berkey Square Galley, London

2004

Victoria Art Gallery, Bath Imago Galleries, Palm Desert, CA Courcoux & Courcoux Gallery, Salisbury Storey Galleries, Lancaster

2005

Canary Wharf, London Solomon Gallery, Dublin

2006

Atkinson Gallery, Millfield School Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin

2007

Imago Galleries, Palm Desert Frederick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids

2008

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield

2009

Victoria Art Gallery, Bath

2010

Aynhoe Park, Oxfordshire Chateau Saint Rosaline, Les Arc-sur Argens

2011

Aynhoe Park, Oxfordshire

2012

Cartwright Hall Aré Gallery, Bradford Villa D’Arte, Pietrasanta, Italy

2013

Cola Landis Contemporary Art Gallery, Moreton in- Marsh Royal West Academy, Bristol Imago Galleries, Palm Desert

2014

New Brewery Arts, Cirencester Courcoux & Courcoux Gallery, Stockbridge

2016

Hignell Gallery, London Sophie Ryder Rising, Waterhouse and Dodd, Rising, New York

2017

Hignell Gallery, London

2018

Galerie de Bellefeuile, Montreal