'Ryan Gander: Life’s a bite’ at Basement Roma, Rome, Italy

17 March 2025

From 20 March — 30 May, Basement Roma presents ‘Life’s a bite’, the first solo exhibition by Ryan Gander in Rome, curated by CURA and Adam Carr. The exhibition contributes to Basement Roma’s experimental programming which, since 2012, has invited artists to conceive and present new work, and to rethink the format of solo exhibitions.

‘Life’s a bite’ is, in part, a response to site and place—both architecturally and conceptually—yet it also points beyond the confines of the gallery to speak pervasively of contemporary anxieties regarding our existence. The exhibition introduces a set of newly created artworks and includes the latest use of animatronics in Gander’s oeuvre, which so far has featured to enliven simulacrum sculptural works of a gorilla and mice, and to stir a caricature rendition of himself as a puppet. While playing with happenstance and mysticism, it is greed and the failure of capitalism that are the two dominant concepts of the story. Yet, a disclaimer permeates: maybe life is both best living by and surrendering to the spirit of the maxim, life’s a bite.

A conversation between Ryan Gander and Adam Carr will be held on 19 March at 7pm at Soho House Rome, within The Art Room program.

Find out more via Basement Roma.

Image: Ryan Gander, I'm never coming back to New York, 2016, Animatronics, twenty pound notes, plaster, Dimensions variable © Ryan Gander, Courtesy Lisson Gallery