RYCA is the alias of Ryan Callanan, an East London-based artist whose practice draws on his background in 3D design, model making and the sign-making industry. He studied 3D Design and Modelmaking, finishing art school in 2002, and spent years making pub signs before building a practice built on pop-cultural cross-reference: taking iconic images from film, acid house, art history and Star Wars and placing them in new contexts — rendered in the style of traditional pub signs, or printed and hand-finished — so that each element shifts the meaning of the other. His emblematic series of bas-relief smiley faces, synonymous with 1980s acid house culture, made him a name among collectors. He has exhibited in Miami, Berlin, LA, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Oslo, was selected as BritWeek Visual Artist of the Year 2015, and has collaborated with Kasabian, Fatboy Slim, Stik and Ben Eine.
