Ryan Foerster (b. 1983, Newmarket, Canada) lives and works in New York, US. He is a Canadian Postwar & Contemporary photographer. He practices a fetching, free-spirited form of photography in which mistakes and accidents are valued, and much is left to chance. He has his quirky process, one that takes place both inside the darkroom and out in nature. Typically, Foerster places photosensitive paper outdoors, leaving the reactive tabula rasas to interact with sun, rain, dirt, leaves, and insects. The resulting compositions—sometimes built over several years—are richly hued and layered with spontaneous, alchemic gestures that resemble bonfires, celestial bodies, and starbursts. Foerster explores the formal potential of transfiguration, preservation, evolution, and decay.
He was the 2013 recipient of the Artadia and New Art Dealers Alliance Award and the 2012 recipient of the Pollock Krasner Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts awards.
He has shown his work internationally at such spaces as Printed Matter Inc., New York, US; Ribordy Contemporary, Geneva, Copenhagen; Allmanna Galleriet, Stockholm, Sweden; White Gallery, Paris, France; C L E A R I N G, Brussels, Belgium; and Alphaville, Melbourne, Australia.
Exhibitions
Servane Mary, Barry X Ball, David Adamo, Yuji Agematsu, Ryan Foerster, Jason Fox, Tillman Kaiser, Arnold J. Kemp, L, Justin Matherly, John Miller, Christopher Myers, Nikholis Planck, Nicolas Roggy, Sally Ross, Davina Semo, TARWUK, Gert and Uwe Tobias, Frederick Weston, Servane Mary, Huma Bhabha, Kathleen Ryan
Strange Attractors The Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Art Vol. 3: Lost In Space
