Artist Talk with Ryan Van Der Hout

2026 Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography Recipient

Ryan Van Der Hout, Edge State, 2024. UV print on glass, solder, copper, stainless steel, and varnish. 62″ × 32″ × 2″. Unique. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artist Talk with Ryan Van Der Hout
2026 Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography Recipient

Presented by the Leighton Artist Studios, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

February 6, 2026, 4pm MST
Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Building, Room 204
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

Attend In-person or Online
Free and open to the public | Reception to follow

Join us for an artist talk by Ryan Van Der Hout, whose practice includes photography, stained glass, and sculpture. They will discuss their broader practice and current investigations into the intersection of geological and human time, and how they integrate analogue darkroom processes with stained-glass techniques to create new works that collapse temporal scales into unified forms. Learn more

Can’t make it in person? Register here to watch the talk live online from anywhere.

This event is presented in partnership with the Exposure Photography Festival.

Ryan Van Der Hout. Photo by Kristina Ruddick.

About the Artist

Ryan Van Der Hout (b. 1987, Canada) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice investigates transformation through fragmentation and reflection, using glass and mirrors as both material and metaphor for queer experience and becoming. They create works that challenge how we see ourselves and our environment, inviting viewers to witness how breaking can reveal new possibilities. Van Der Hout’s public works function as large optical devices, reflecting and refracting surrounding space to create ongoing physical dynamics with viewers.

Van Der Hout holds an MFA from Parsons at The New School and a BFA in Photography from Metropolitan University. Their work has been featured in Time Out NY, NBC News, Vogue Italia, Fortune Magazine, and the CBC. Recent solo exhibitions include Mending Shards (United Contemporary, 2024) and To Reflect Everything (Toronto Sculpture Garden, 2023). They have created public art for NYC Parks, the City of Toronto, and Nuit Blanche.

Van Der Hout has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council and has received the Emerging Artist Award from the Robert McLaughlin Gallery and the Barbara Spohr Memorial Award from the Banff Centre.

About the Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography

The Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography supports one mid-career Canadian artist annually with a fully funded residency at Banff Centre. Established by the friends and family of the late artist Barbara Spohr, the award encourages the advancement of Canadian contemporary photography by providing financial and creative support to artists whose practices have made significant contributions to the field.

For more information or to apply for the 2027 Barbara Spohr Memorial Award for Photography, visit here.

About Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

Founded in 1933, Banff Centre is a post-secondary institution built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and leadership development.

From our home in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to move everyone who attends our campus–artists, leaders, thinkers, and audiences–to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to build an innovative, inspiring future.

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive
Banff, AB T1L 1H5, Canada
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Image Descriptions:
1. Edge State, 2024 by Ryan Van Der Hout—mixed media wall work of shattered and assembled glass printed with figurative imagery, set within solder, copper, and stainless-steel elements, creating a textured, reflective composition.
2. Ryan Van Der Hout stands in a gallery space beside wall-mounted works from their series Mending Shards, featuring fragmented photographic images arranged across a white wall with trailing green plants.