Pip Ryan is an Australian artist based in Narrm/Melbourne. Her practice explores humour, irony and the absurd through drawing, sculpture, installation and video. Her works present a multitude of imagined creatures and characters including hybrid animals, disembodied figures and darkly comical beasts. Ryan is interested in using colour and playful forms to engage with dark and surreal subject matter, exploring the junction between the personal and the imagined world. She also collaborates with her sister Natalie Ryan exhibiting under The Ryan Sisters.

Recent exhibitions include The Devils Cloak at MARS Gallery Melbourne, Flesh Creepers at Hugo Michell Gallery SA, The Grey Zone - Part of NGV design week Artbank, Pick it Till it Bleeds, Stockroom Kyneton, Collaboratory curated by Kent Wilson at Latrobe Art Institute, Self titled exhibition at GoGo Bar, Do Geese See God at Rubicon Ari, Disquiet (Off You) curated by Stephanie Han for Dark MOFO, Gruesome Twosome at Nicholas Projects, Ups and Downs at Stockroom Kyneton, NotFair 2017, Serious Work at Rearview, Maverick curated by Reko Rennie at MCA Artbar, Horror Show at Strange Neighbour and Gippsland Art Gallery, Relive it Again at Daine Singer.

Recent residencies and awards include Bundanon Trust artist in residence, Steeple residency Scotland. Recipient of the Creative Workers in Schools six-month Artist in Residence program. Selected finalist for the Fisher Ghost Art Award 2021, Paul Guest Prize 2020, Selected finalist for National Works on Paper 2020 at MPRG, Selected finalist for Manningham Art Prize 2020, Selected finalist for Deakin Small Sculpture Award 2019, Selected finalist for Darebin Art Prize 2017 and 2019, Australian Post Graduate Award, Signal Screen Commission, National Gallery of Victoria Women’s Association Award, Best Photographic Award at Proud, Best Contemporary Drawing Award VCA.

Pick it till it Bleeds

PIP RYAN

Growing up, Pip Ryan invented fictitious animals and hypothetical situations, using hybrid

creatures she had imagined. Her scenarios were usually darkly comical, inserting imaginary

beasts into unusual and bizarre circumstances. These days, implanting colourful beings in

absurd scenarios are still very much part of her focus. Her work presents a multitude of fictional

characters including animals, disembodied figures and mythical beasts that cascade down a

labyrinth of disturbing and gagging imagery.

'Pick it till it Bleeds' is a new series of works on paper and sculptures by Ryan. Using fleshy forms

and imagined creatures, the show engages ideas of humour, irony and the absurd to examine

states of anxiety, itches that can’t be scratched, and wounds that are persistently interrupted by

picking. Playful fluid forms and upturned heads offer titillating insights into Ryan’s psyche and

her compulsion to be excited by the abject.Description text goes here