Ryan Foerster

Foerster's work has been exhibited at the Abrons Art Center, New York; Swiss Institute, New York; White Columns, New York; Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York; Pioneer Works, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Split; Columbus Museum of Art; Aspen Art Museum; and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto. Foerster's work was also included in “Rockaway!” organized by MOMA PS1, Rockaway Beach Surf Club, New York 2014. ‘Zines by Foerster were included in the Museum of Modern Art Library exhibition “Millennium Magazines”, 2012. Foerster has shown at Clearing Gallery; Ribordy Thetaz Gallery; Martos Gallery; Kerry Schuss Gallery; Cooper Cole Gallery; The National Exemplar; and Hannah Hoffman Gallery. Foerster's books and 'zines are in the collections of the New York Public Library, Yale University Library, and the Museum of Modern Art library.

In 2014 Foerster curated the exhibition “Silvianna Goldsmith” at White Columns, NY 2014. He has also curated exhibitions at ribordy contemporary, Geneva 2014, and Martos Gallery, New York, 2014.

Foerster was the recipient of the Artadia NADA award in 2013 and received a Pollock Krasner foundation grant in 2012.

In 2012 Hurricane Sandy caused flooding in Foerster's Brighton Beach home. The water damage affected boxes of Foerster's early photographs. Rather than discard the prints, he chose to present them as new works, relishing the changed and bleeding colors, staining, and buckling. He states, “At first I thought about them as ruined, but now I’m not sure that’s what really happened. It’s just one way of looking at it.”

In 2011 Foerster curated the exhibition “Harvest Moon” featuring works by his artist friends including Elaine Cameron-Weir, Erik Lindman, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, Jacob Kassay and others. Mirroring Foerster's own process of subjecting artworks to the elements, and his democratic approach to installing works in various media, Foerster placed the artworks in the backyard and other areas around his Brighton Beach home which was formerly owned by the artist Silvianna Goldsmith.

During the 2009 financial crisis, when Foerster's day job assisting artists was tenuous and he had limited resources but more time, he would walk around his neighborhood observing and collecting. He notes,

Foerster’s early photographs from this period are largely diaristic: observations from daily life, natural phenomena, and photos of his friends and travels. His images were featured in VICE magazine and on the artist Tim Barber’s website tinyvices, an online showcase for emerging photographers, as well as in an exhibition at White Columns, New York in 2007.

Foerster moved to New York in 2005 to attend the International Center of Photography, but dropped out after three months. Traditional photographic processes were not of interest to Foerster who has stated, “Photography with insane production value really grossed me out. I didn’t want to need thousands of dollars to make art. It was more satisfying to make art out of nothing, out of things other people didn’t want.” However, a course Foerster took at the ICP on photography and sculpture taught by the artist Sam Samore did have an influence on Foerster's interest in mixing photography with “found-object books and sculptures.” In an interview with Bomb magazine Foerster notes, “The first shows I did in my apartment in Brooklyn were a mix of photos I took and sculptures I’d made from shit on the street. It’s funny that I’m basically doing the same thing ten years later.” In 2008 Foerster presented his photographs and sculpture in a solo exhibition at Swiss institute, New York, for which he also printed a ‘zine.

Between 2004-06 Foerster, along with others, graffitied the name ‘Val Kilmer’ and pasted a black-and-white image of the actor's head on buildings, doorways, and other locations in the streets of Toronto and New York. Speculation regarding the inspiration for the graffiti and its auteur was covered by the New York Post, Gawker, and other outlets in the U.S. and Canada. Foerster also made a ‘zine featuring the image.

Foerster started creating ‘zines while he was in high school. Using the copy machine at his father’s office, Foerster and his friends printed Dear Henry Wang, a ‘zine composed of “random writing, stuff [they] found in dumpsters, photos, jokes, and interviews with punk bands from around Toronto.” Issues were available in Toronto's cooperative-run store Who's Emma? where punk bands played in the basement. The ‘zine offered Foerster an opportunity to “get involved, voice ideas, and meet people” and provided Foerster's introduction to photography, as he photographed and interviewed many of the bands in the Toronto punk scene in the late 1990s.

Ryan Foerster (born 1983) is a Canadian visual artist recognized for his ‘zines, photographs, videos, and sculptural installations which frequently incorporate found objects, salvaged materials, and natural elements. The artist’s reuse of discarded materials to create new artworks is a generative process of discovery and transformation integral to Foerster’s practice as well as a reaction to excessive waste.

Ryan Foerster was born in 1983 in Newmarket Canada. He lives in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn New York.