Sophie Ryder (born 1963) is a British sculptor known for her large wire structures. Ryder uses materials including bronze, wet plaster embedded with found materials, sheet metal, marble, and stained glass. Additionally, her artistic practice includes drawing, painting and printmaking as a counterpoint to her sculptural work.

Biography

Sophie Ryder was born in London, England in 1963. She studied combined arts at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

from 1981 to 1984, focusing initially on painting. But she changed her focus when the Royal Academy's director,

Sir Hugh Casson Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson (23 May 1910 – 15 August 1999) was a British architect. He was also active as an interior designer, as an artist, and as a writer and broadcaster on twentieth-century design. He was the director of architecture for t ...

, encouraged her to develop her work in sculpture. Ryder's monumental sculptures 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.

Works

Ryder's work is mainly focused on mythical creatures. Her most known piece is the Lady Hare, a hare with a female human body. In 1994, controversy erupted when one of Ryder's sculptures, a depiction of five

minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "p ...

s, was banned from an exhibition at

Winchester Cathedral The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity,Historic England. "Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity (1095509)". ''National Heritage List for England''. Retrieved 8 September 2014. Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Swithun, commonly known as Winches ...

because of the prominence of their genitalia.

Influences

Of her influences 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."

References

External links

Sophie Ryder website

Hignell Gallery website

Gallery De Bellefeuille website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryder, Sophie Living people 1963 births English women sculptors Alumni of the Royal Academy Schools Sculptors from London 21st-century British women artists 21st-century English women 21st-century English people