Veronica Ryan, like many of us in pandemic times, is not where she planned to be. We’re Zooming between Shropshire (me) and New York, where Ryan spends some of her time. But had coronavirus not intervened the British artist would have been on my side of the Atlantic preparing for her solo exhibition at Spike Island in Bristol. Slated to open earlier last year, the show, a result of the Freelands Award, which supports mid-career women artists, will now open on Wednesday, May 19.
“There has been a lot of configuring and rejuggling,” she admits, her stylish appearance — dreadlocks coiled into a sumptuous topknot above sculpted cheekbones and capacious spectacles — and steady tones suggesting that the upheaval has done little to ruffle her inner calm and no-nonsense practicality. In truth, her hands-on brio coexists with a thoughtful, inquiring intellect that leads her to talk in slow, looping sentences that veer off on tangents and scoop up abstract ideas.
That gift for compromising neither mind nor matter is reflected in her oeuvre. She was born in 1956 on the…
