Ursula von Rydingsvard
(b. Deensen, Germany, 1942)
Ursula von Rydingsvard is a Polish American sculptor known for her monumental works primarily crafted from cedar wood. Born in Germany in 1942 to Polish and Ukrainian parents, she spent her early years in refugee camps before emigrating to the United States. Her challenging upbringing deeply influences her artistic practice, which often explores themes of memory, trauma, and resilience. Von Rydingsvard uses intuitive and labor-intensive methods to shape rough cedar beams into organic, abstract forms that evoke natural structures, domestic objects, and the human body.
Over the last four decades, von Rydingsvard has become one of the most prominent figures in contemporary sculpture. Her works have been exhibited in major institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum, and she has received numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. While cedar remains her signature medium, she has also experimented with bronze, resin, and other materials in large-scale public commissions around the world. Her sculptures are celebrated for their emotional depth, material complexity, and sense of raw physicality.
Ursula von Rydingsvard lives and works in New York.
