See two new sculptures by Kathleen Ryan at Roman Meal, an exhibition at 17-19 Davies Street.
In this solo debut at the gallery, Ryan turns the ordinary into the extraordinary with her surreal interpretations of everyday objects.
The exhibition at the Davies Street gallery comprises two new large-scale sculptures, Fender Bender and Sliced Bread (Golden Hour) (both 2025).
The first sculpture sees a pair of triangular lemon slices leaning upon each another, while the second is a slice of mouldy bread slouched against the back wall of the room. Both works are contiguous with the ongoing series Bad Fruit (2018–), in which Ryan meticulously coats the surfaces of enlarged, decomposing foodstuffs with a near-painterly abundance of semiprecious stones.
Fender Bender and Sliced Bread (Golden Hour) are also linked by the shared history of their subjects as everyday and oft-discarded things, something that extends Ryan’s long-standing interest in salvage: in locating and illuminating the beauty that can be found in seemingly common things, from two thin slivers of lemon to the bumpers that were wrenched from the same car to form their aluminium rinds.
See this exhibition at Gagosian, 17-19 Davies Street, London W1K 3DE
Image caption: Kathleen Ryan Sliced Bread (Golden Hour), 2025
Agate, labradorite, aventurine, argonite, jamesite, copper malachite, citrine, calcite, zeolite, magnesite, amazonite, celestite, prehnite, turquoise, quartz, rhyolite, carnelian, garnet, jasper, serpentine, pink opal, ruby in zoisite, amethyst, quartz, amber, marble, acrylic, steel pins, polyurethane foam, aluminum, and king-size mattress. Photo: Maris Hutchinson. Courtesy Gagosian: 80 x 80 x 35 inches (203.2 x 203.2 x 88.9 cm) © Kathleen Ryan. Courtesy Gagosian.
