Lian Ryan (b. 2000) is a London-based mixed-media artist investigating silent spatial relationships through the abstraction and manipulation of the body. Working across painting, installation, video and, more recently animation, Lian explores themes of limitation, migration and hierarchy, examining how systems of identification are shaped by cultural, corporeal, terrestrial and social structures. 

Their work engages borders, entanglements and discomfort to interrogate Anne Anlin Cheng's theory of Ornamentalism, which critiques the objectification and fetishisation of the Asiatic feminine. 

In 2023, Lian was an artist-in-residence at Mirror of Creation in Berlin, supported by Berliner Projektfonds Kulturelle Bildung.

Education

2024 - 2026

Contemporary Art Practice, Royal College of Art, London

2025

Short Film, CityLit, London

2018 - 2022

Painting, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh 

Exhibitions

2026

DWELLING, London

2024 

My Spaces are Fragile, CAP Pending, London

Riptides, Werkhalle Wiesenburg, Berlin

2023 

Vel Gert!, Phenomenon Art Studios and Gallery, Reykjavík

2022 

ROKKÜR, Phenomenon Art Studios and Gallery, Reykjavík 

Creative's Collaboration Project, Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh

C.youthere, Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh