Ryan Kearney

Ryan Kearney is a curator and researcher based in the Midlands. Working collaboratively across exhibitions and live programmes, he is the founder of Queer Space Archive, an initiative that looks to document unrecorded LGBTQI+ space.

Currently a PhD Candidate at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and supported by the Bartlett Promise Scholarship, Ryan previously worked as Assistant Curator at Nottingham Contemporary, Co-Curator at Recent Activity, and has delivered projects at the 58th Venice Biennale; Birmingham Hippodrome; Block Universe; and Grand Union. Ryan’s writing features in Frieze and this is tomorrow.

He studied at the University of the Arts London and the University of Birmingham, and is a member of Tate and Paul Mellon Centre’s Emerging Curator Group, 2020-21 and the School of Social Entrepreneurs’s Start-Up Programme, 2021-22.

Education

University of Birmingham
MA Art History and Curating
2017 - 2018

Grand Union
Curatorial Curriculum
May - Oct 2018

University of the Arts London
BA (Hons) Photography
2013 - 2016

Experience

Nottingham Contemporary
Assistant Curator
Sep 2019 - Sep 2021

The Contemporary Journal
Editorial Assistant
Sep 2019 - Sep 2021

Recent Activity
Co-curator
Apr 2017 - Oct 2019

Indre Serpytyte
Studio Assistant
Nov 2018 - Sep 2019

Parafin
Gallery Coordinator
Aug 2018 - Sep 2019

Argentea Gallery
Gallery Assistant
Dec 2017 - Aug 2018

Awards

School of Social Entrepeneurs
Start Up Grant
2021

Tate & British Art Network
Emerging Curators Group Bursary
2020

a-n
a-n Mentoring Bursary
2019

New Art West Midlands
Engine Bursary
2018

Art Fund
Navigating the Art Market
2018

Talks

AHRA Research Student Symposium
University of Westminster
Apr 2022

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
Feb 2020

Barber Institute of Fine Art
Feb 2019

Camberwell College of Art
Jan 2018

RYAN KEARNEY is a curator, writer and researcher based in the Midlands.