Veronica Ryan was born in 1956 in Plymouth, the capital of the island of Montserrat—a bustling Caribbean town until a series of volcanic eruptions, beginning in 1995, led to evacuation. In those early days, Ryan’s mother made patchworks, which inspired Veronica’s own impulse to make art. In 1974, she moved to the U.K. to study at Hertfordshire College of Art and Design, then continued her studies across the country. From the start, Ryan was determined to break free from the hold of British modernism. “All along I have had various people be very critical of me because I did not fit into their politicized agenda,” she has said. Her sculptures are abstract yet imbued with biomorphic form—shells, husks, seeds. Three years ago, Ryan was awarded the Turner Prize. This exhibition looks at four decades of her groundbreaking practice. —Elena Clavarino