Relief Print, Lithographic Ink on Kozo Japanese Paper,
2 Panels @ 90 x 125cm each (Edition of 5 + 2 AP) 2025
Photo by Dean Brannagan
Untitled #10 - 2025
Cyanotype Print/Collage 30 x 40cm.
Untitled #25 - 2025
Cyanotype Print/Collage 30 x 40cm.
Untitled #21 - 2025
Cyanotype Print/Collage 30 x 40cm.
Untitled #26 - 2025
Cyanotype Print/Collage 30 x 40cm.
BLACK_BOX [Recorder].
Relief Print, Lithographic Ink on Kozo Japanese Paper,
2 Panels @ 90 x 165cm each (Edition of 5 + 2 AP) 2025
Photo by Dean Brannagan
Shadowplay.
Relief Print, Lithographic Ink on Kozo Japanese Paper,
90 x 125cm
Edition of 5 + 2 AP - 2025
Photo by Dean Brannagan
Untitled (Matrix #2).
Relief Print, Lithographic Ink on Kozo Japanese Paper,
90 x 125cm
Edition of 5 + 2 AP - 2025
Photo by Dean Brannagan
Untitled (Matrix #1).
Relief Print, Lithographic Ink on Kozo Japanese Paper,
90 x 125cm
Edition of 5 + 2 AP - 2025
Photo by Dean Brannagan
Yesterday’s Crusade (He).
Woodblock Print, Lithographic Ink on Kozo Japanese Paper, mounted on wooden Panel. 45 x 60cm each (Edition of 25 + 2 AP) 2022
Reflektor.
Relief Print, Lithographic Ink on Kozo Japanese Paper,
90 x 125cm
Edition of 5 + 2 AP - 2025
Photo by Dean Brannagan
Yesterday’s Crusade (She).
Woodblock Print, Lithographic Ink on Kozo Japanese Paper, mounted on wooden Panel. 45 x 60cm each (Edition of 25 + 2 AP) 2022
About
Born Liverpool 1978, lives & works in London.
I studied Printmaking at the Royal College of Art, having previously graduated from Goldsmiths College & Camberwell School of Art. I was Print Fellow at the Royal Academy Schools from 2010–2012.
My work has been exhibited nationally & internationally at venues including the V&A Museum (London), Academia di Venezia (Venice), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Temple Bar Gallery (Dublin), G39 Gallery (Cardiff), the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (Brazil) & the William Morris Gallery (London).
I have work held in public & private collections across Europe & the USA, including the Royal College of Art in London & the Sèvres Museum in Paris. Alongside my practice, I have worked on numerous educational projects with organisations such as Art on the Underground, Camden Arts Centre, Tate, Crafts Council & Green Man Festival.
This website is developed in the hope that it will be viewed on a computer screen, rather than a mobile device.
Over the past twenty-five years, my practice has been grounded in appropriation & replication, investigating how images & objects circulate culturally & what transformations occur when they are re-used, manipulated, or re-made. My work begins with what already exists found images & objects subjected to processes of deconstruction, reassembly, and translation.
Initially working in clay through Industrial techniques such as mould-making and slip-casting, I treated ceramics as a site of imprint, labour, and memory. Over time, my focus shifted toward print media, using degraded digital files, archival remains, & discarded ephemera as unstable carriers of memory. These materials are subjected to analogue & digital manipulation, where the imprint a trace of labour or presence functions as translation across contexts. As Rosalind Krauss argues, the index marks both presence & absence, a logic central to my practice.¹
Replication here is not faithful copying but what Deleuze terms “repetition with difference”: each iteration produces instability, fragility, & transformation.² A degraded photocopy or mis-registered print embodies replication as uncertainty, where meaning remains provisional.
"His practice earnestly questions the physical & cultural relationship human beings have with the material world, & on this basis speculates what changes may occur in our perceptions of art making in an age of computerisation"
- Erica Shioza
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, I have focused on translating digital “poor images” (Steyerl)³ compressed, fragile files into slow, labour-intensive analogue processes such as woodcut. This does not restore their “aura” (Benjamin)⁴ but highlights the instability between disappearance and persistence. Labour becomes central: carving, printing, and layering foreground the embodied, durational presence often erased in digital circulation.
Appropriation in my practice is not ironic detachment but recognition of the histories & labour embedded in images. In Bourriaud’s terms, it operates as *postproduction*⁵ reprogramming cultural material to generate new relational meanings. Repetition thus becomes both aesthetic & political: a form of witnessing that preserves & distorts memory, foregrounding the fragile imprints through which cultural memory persists.
Ryan McClelland 2025
Curriculum Vitae
Education
2007 MA RCA Fine Art (Printmaking) - The Royal College of Art, London UK
2002 P.G.C.E Art & Design - Goldsmiths College, London UK
2000 BA (hons) Ceramics - Camberwell College of Arts, London UK
Selected Exhibitions
2023
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy of Arts, London UK
2017
Post Production Blues (Solo) Mutton Fist Press @ Five Years Gallery London UK
Dandelion Visions & The Nonbifurcatedman curated by Mikey Georgeson (Part of the William Blake Festival) Bognor Regis Library, Bognor Regis UK
2015
SLUICE Art Fair with the Florence Trust London UK
Staging the Artwork Part 1& 2, curated by Mona Casey Article Gallery, Birmingham UK
Island, curated by Jude Bennett with Tim Etchells, Huw Greenwood Mark Titchner and Suzanne Treister, G39 Cardiff UK
Unfold, Fourfold Projects, Enclave, London UK
2014
Turner/Turner (Part of Common Projects), Tate Britain, London UK
The Fall Show #2, Gare du Nord, Copenhagen, Denmark
The Experimental Studio, Vane Gallery, Newcastle upon tyne UK
Inaugural Show, Gare du Nord, Copenhagen, Denmark
RCA Secret, The Royal College of Art, London UK
2013
Who Killed Cock Robin?, BANKROBBER, London UK
The Florence Trust Summer Show, The Florence Trust, London UK
Rushing to Paradise, The Royal Standard, Liverpool, UK
MADE 2013 (Invited Artist), Morley Gallery, London UK
Jeux de pichets (Curated by Hélène Aziza) Galerie 19 Paul Fort, Paris, France
To Start With, Let’s Remove The Colour, curated by Paul McAree with Marc Bijl, Simon Bedwell, Sonia Shiel & Mark Pearson Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2012
Over the Radar (Curated by Sadie Murdoch) with Marcus Harvey, James Cauty, Gee Vaucher. Core Arts Gallery, London UK
L.H.O.O.Q.E.R.I (Curated by Mark Hampson), The Queen Charlotte, Ramsgate, Kent UK
Detours (Curated by Grazyna Dobrzanska-Redrup) Wimbledon College of Art, London UK
NOTICE (Curated by Mona Casey), ARTicle Gallery, Birmingham UK
2011
The Outsider (Curator) with Billy Childish, Cathie Pilkington, Jay Cloth, Adam James, Sexton Ming Core Arts Gallery, London
B42 with SLICE (Curated by Mona Casey) with Paul McAree, Ross Sinclair and Niall Singh as part of the Event, Various locations across Birmingham UK
The DISerning eye (Invited Artist selected by Eileen Cooper RA) Mall Galleries, London UK
2010
Auction East, Five Hundred Dollars, London UK
Legends of Circumstance (Curated by Dave Evans & Frances Disley) with Adam Dant, Laura Oldfield Ford and John Strutton, Bargate Gallery, Southampton UK
LAF with Art First, Business Design Centre, London
2009
The Death of a Party (Solo), Digiteria, London UK
Mandalay (Curated by Ed Pearman), John Jones project space, London UK
The Space between Surrounds our Desires (Curated by Mona Casey). The Event, Birmingham UK
Legends of Circumstance (Curated by Dave Evans & Frances Disley) White Cross Gallery, London UK
Frozen (Curated by Gavin Ramsey, Digiteria, London UK
Katalogue XXL (Curated by Wilhelm Finger), Oscar Nieymer Museum, Curitiba, Brazil
LAF with FORSTER Gallery, Business Design Centre, London UK
2008
The Sleep of Reason (Solo), FORSTER Gallery, London UK
The Rotten Fruits of Labour (Solo), Ferreira Projects, London UK
SCOPE art fair with FORSTER Gallery, London UK
Group Show, O contemporary, London UK
A little bit of skulduggery, Bankrobber, London UK
Chiaroscuro (Curated by Sophie Wilson), Ada Street Gallery, London UK
Group Focus, Forster Gallery, London UK
The Evil Art Market, Art Car Boot, London UK
Katalogue XXL (Curated by Wilhelm Finger),
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
7 Wonders of the Ancient World (Curated by Will Martry), St Pancras Crypt, London UK Project (OR) with Vegas Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
LAF with FORSTER Gallery, Business Design Centre, London UK
2007
PURE_Printmaking(Curated by Christian Ferreira),
Ferreira Projects, London UK
Last of the Urgent’s (Curated by Casey & Mcaree) with Nikolas Arvanitis, Simon Bedwell, Ryan McClelland Colony, Birmingham UK
Katalogue XXL, Trafalgar Hotel, London UK
ZOO Art Fair with Colony, Royal Academy of Art, London UK
Ritual Abuse (Curated by Harry Burden), The Boys Hall, London UK
The Great Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London UK
Underground, Subway Gallery, London UK
Kunstwurst, Café Gallery Projects, London UK
Urban Monsters, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, USA
Over & Over Again (Curated by Sacha Craddock), Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London UK
2006
Leicester City Art Gallery (Curated by Jacui Poncelet & Carol McNicholl), Leicester UK
Pinocchio Related, Academia de Venice, Venice, Italy
New News from Nowhere (Curated by Mark Hampson), William Morris Gallery, London UK
2005
Domesticity, the Art works Gallery, Bournemouth UK
Co[]ect (Selected by Carol McNicoll), Victoria & Albert Museum, London
2003
Heremyself, Concourse Gallery, Byam Shaw, London UK
2002
Subject to Status (Solo), Blenheim Road, London UK
The New Radicals, Galleri Sigma, Goteborg, SWE
2000
Futuremap 2000 (Selected by Richard Slee), Davies Street Gallery, London UK
Selected Publications
2015 Review of Island adaptation 1 & 2 - This is Tomorrow by Rowan Lear
2012 Believe in an alternative Sheer Wonder Press, Manchester
Red Magazine, April issue
2011 "New Wood Block Prints" Concrete Hermit
"B42" Published by SLICE part of the Event, Birmingham
A.N Magazine
2010 Legends of Circumstance, Dazed Digital
2009 Manderley, Pick of the week, The Guardian
2008 Ryan McClelland at the Forster Gallery, Ned Beauman, Dazed & Confused
Exhibition Review, Sharon Horgan The Guardian,
2007 Ceramic Review Nov/Dec
Katologue XXL
'As If Something Once Mentioned Now Plain to See', Colony
Last of the Urgents, Mark Hutchinson, Colony 'Ritual Abuse', Exhibition Catalogue
2006 New News from Nowhere, William Morris Gallery
2005 Domesticity, Exhibition Catalogue
2000 Future Map 2000', Exhibition Catalogue, the London Institute
Residencies
2017 Guest Artist, Muttonfist Press/Five Years Gallery, London, UK
2013 Artist in Residence, The Royal Standard, Liverpool, UK
2012 Artist in Residence, The Florence Trust, London UK
2010 Printmaking Fellow, The Royal Academy Schools, London UK
2012 Artist in Residence, Chelsea College of Art, London UK
2008 Spiral Residency, Camden Arts Centre, London UK
2003 Artist in Residence, Holloway School, London UK
Previous Teaching & Educational Projects
Goldsmiths College, University of London, London (2022, 2023)
Groundswell Arts, London (2021-23)
Riverside School, London (2019 - Present)
The Bridge School, London (2002 – 2019)
Fermynwood Contemporary Art (2017)
Morley College, London (2012 – 2015)
Core Arts, London (2009 – 2015)
Dynamic Autism Group, London (2011 – 2012)
Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, Birmingham (2010)
The Royal Academy Schools, London (2010 -2012) (2008)
Camden Arts Centre, London (2008 - 2012)
Camberwell College of Arts, London (2006- 2008)
Orleans House & Gallery Twickenham (2009)
Byam Shaw School of Art, London (2008)
Winchester School of Art, Winchester, Hampshire (2007)
Crusoe House School, London (2002-2003)
Crafts Council, London (2002 – 2003)
North London Collegiate School, Middlesex (2002)
Acton High School, London (2001-2002)
Tate Modern, London (2001 – 2002)
Collections
Sèvres Museum, Paris, FR
The Royal College of Art, London, UK
Tom Conran, London, UK
Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, USA
Private European & American Collections.