Ryan Gander: YOU COMPLETE ME

The Pola Museum of Art is pleased to present an exhibition featuring the most recent works of Ryan Gander.
Ryan Gander (b.1976) is an internationally acclaimed artist based in Suffolk, UK, whose practice encompasses painting, sculpture, video, text, VR installations, architecture, publications, typefaces, rituals, and performances. Through this wide-ranging, multifaceted body of work, Gander continually reexamines the frameworks and meanings of art. In addition to his own creative activities, he is deeply engaged in curating exhibitions, teaching at universities and art institutions, and supporting young artists and children through various initiatives. He has also written and edited numerous books and has both produced and appeared in television programs that promote art and culture. His practice reimagines the role and subjectivity of the artist for the contemporary era.

Describing himself as “a sort of neo-conceptualist and amateur philosopher with a ʻno-styleʼ style,” Gander creates works that may appear personable at first glance, yet are underpinned by profound thought and incisive humour. The new works presented in this exhibition explore a range of themes, including empathy and narcissism, time and mortality, invisibility and prejudice, and investigations into autism spectrum conditions.

Animal motifs in Ganderʼs work—such as a frog, a bird, and mice—often appear as symbols of innocence or “alternative knowledge.” Their voices and perspectives offer ways to understand the essence of humanity. A bird known as a painted bunting hiding inside a cuckoo clock quietly portends that what civilisation has bestowed upon us is not order, but rather a curse. In an age when artificial intelligence is advancing at a dizzying pace and instantly available answers just as quickly lose their value, Ganderʼs work asserts the enduring value of doubt and questioning.

Scattered throughout the museum are questions posed by children—some may seem nonsensical, even “weak.” But are they truly worthless? What obstructs our imagination from reaching a different answer: the huge balloon looming before us, or something within ourselves? Listen closely to the tale of the frog, from which the exhibition takes its name: 
“You just mourn the thing I am not. You see, when you see me, you donʼt see me. You see the differences. You see the things I canʼt do, that you can do, and so you constantly define me by that yardstick, but you lack vision. Vision for the things that I can do. (...) My happiness, and the consequences of my being in this world, is not limited to your metric. Youʼre missing the macro.”

Outside the museum, a flag is flying, on which an extraordinary variety of unrelated symbolic graphics coexist on an equal plane. In an era that champions diversity, we are nonetheless prone to fixating on the “weakness” of others. But what constitutes true weakness—or strength? “It may in fact be I who is mistaken.” With wit and imagination, through the discursive power of language and narrative, Ganderʼs works turn our norms inside out and gently invert how we see the world.

This exhibition marks Ganderʼs first solo museum show in Japan in three years, and presents recent and newly produced works made after 2023, following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ryan Gander: YOU COMPLETE ME is curated by Suzuki Kota (Senior Curator, Pola Museum of Art).

Press inquiries: Ono Takayo (Public Relations, Pola Museum of Art) info@polamuseum.or.jp