Artist Ryan Gander calls painting futile, yet his new show features paintings

Ryan Gander, a 50-year-old British conceptual artist, is preparing a new exhibition, "Maybe: Ryan Gander", at the Towner gallery in Eastbourne, England. The show includes new works that are paintings, even though he told The Guardian in an interview that he regards drawing and painting as futile.

Art as an idea, not an object

In Gander's view, art is not about objects such as sculptures or paintings, but about the stories and feelings they provoke. He has previously exhibited a breeze blowing through an empty white room. His earlier projects include cocktail recipes, treasure hunts, vending machines, carved wooden condoms and chess sets made from car components. He argues that 99% of art is flat and square, even though anything is possible.

Gander says galleries once warned him that working in many different styles would damage his career. He ignored them and says that in 30 years he has never failed to sell work. He keeps his ideas on around 22,000 cards. He works in two studios, a small one in London's Barbican and a large one in Suffolk. Following a recent divorce, he has begun to slow down.

Paintings made with his son

The paintings are a collaboration with his seven-year-old son Baxter, who is autistic and non-verbal. Gander painted a large beachball after his son took an interest in a communication card showing one. The show also includes music composed by Baxter with stickers on a musical stave, played from a wind-up music box. Sculptures of Gander's two daughters, aged 12 and 17, form part of the exhibition.

Criticism of British art

Gander says he has never been nominated for the Turner Prize and is less popular in Britain than in Japan or the US. He calls the YBAs, the Young British Artists of the 1990s, egocentric and shallow, and criticises today's painting for repeating similar subjects. About his new paintings, he admitted he does not know whether he likes them as art.