Will Ryman

The first monograph on an artist whose theatrical sculptures elevate the grit and absurdity of everyday life into monumental, thought-provoking installations.

Will Ryman was destined to become an artist—a lifelong New Yorker raised in a revered family of artists, he was shaped from a young age by the city in all its hard-scrabble beauty. Best known for sculptures and installations that fuse satire, spectacle, and a distinctly urban sensibility, Ryman trained as a playwright before turning to sculpture, creating a practice that melds the two disciplines. In his work, he transforms overlooked details of daily city life—pigeons, subway scenes, newsstands—into larger-than-life forms that are humorous, unsettling, and unexpectedly poignant. In addition to these works, his large-scale political tableaux are powerful evocations of the forces that shape our civic lives.

His signature monumentally scaled rose sculptures have been exhibited globally as public art projects from New York City to Shanghai. His work is held in prominent public collections, including The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, East Lansing; the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland; the Frist Art Museum, Nashville; the Margulies Collection, Miami; the New Orleans Museum of Art; and the 21c Museum Foundation, among others. The Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, New York, will host a long-term outdoor presentation of the artist's work beginning in 2026.

Ryman's theatrical vignettes of street life brim with wit while engaging themes of consumerism, labor, mortality, and the fragile beauty that persists in urban settings. This special volume features two different paper stocks and is bound in a gunmetal-gray case.

Andrea Glimcher, editor of the volume, is founder of the management firm Hyphen, after decades at the forefront of the international art world. Seth Barrish is the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of The Barrow Group. Carl Bernstein is the author or co-author of six bestselling books, including All the President’s Men and The Final Days, both written with Bob Woodward. He, along with Bob Woodward and The Washington Post, won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their coverage of the Watergate story. Joe Fig is an artist and author, known for work that explores the creative process and the spaces where art is made. Eleanor Heartney has been writing about contemporary art for over forty years and is the author of numerous magazine articles and books. Courtney J. Martin is the Executive Director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Jérôme Neutres, PhD, is a writer and museum curator, and has been Director at the Réunion des Musées Nationaux-Grand Palais, Paris, for ten years. Molly Ringwald is an actor, singer, author, and translator.