Ro Robertson – interview: ‘The female shipbuilders of Sunderland have been a big inspiration’

At Sunderland’s Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, which stands beside the River Wear, is a new exhibition by Ro Robertson. We met them there to talk about the central installation and the other works in their first solo institutional show

Ro Robertson is having a moment. The artist, whose practice includes sculpture, large-scale drawing, video and installations, has work in four exhibitions across England. One of them, The Ribs Begin to Rise at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art is their first solo institutional show and marks Robertson’s return to their hometown of Sunderland.

Ro Robertson, The Ribs Begin to Rise, installation view, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, July 2025. Photo: Chris Davison.

The gallery sits where once there was a shipbuilders’ yard (closed in the mid-1980s) on the bank of the River Wear. It’s an evocative location and Studio International caught up with Robertson just before the exhibition opened, on the windy riverbank outside the gallery and amid their new video-audio-sculptural installation also called, like the show itself, The Ribs Begin to Rise.

Born Rosanne Robertson in 1984 and brought up in the suburb of Pallion, traditionally home to workers in the city’s shipyards, Robertson left Sunderland in their late teens to study at the Manchester School of Art. Graduating in fine art in 2010, they moved to West Yorkshire, joining a development programme that paired them with the Hepworth Wakefield. Here they were able to exhibit among Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures.

Ro Robertson, The Ribs Begin to Rise, installation view, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, July 2025. Photo: Chris Davison.

Deciding it was time for a change, in late 2019 Robertson settled in West Cornwall, close to St Ives, where they continue to live and work, focusing on the sea and coastal landscape, and the boundaries and meeting points between the human body and its surroundings.

Identifying as non-binary, Robertson is interested in “the spaces left empty by oppressive systems” and rigid categorisation, and the more fluid environments of nature. Their most recent work includes steel sculpture – often curved and painted – and large, colourful abstract drawings, often made within the landscapes or beside the water they evoke.

Ro Robertson, Constructions I – III, 2025. Welded and riveted steel, oil paint and sea water. Installation view, The Ribs Begin to Rise, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, July 2025. Photo: Chris Davison.

Ro Robertson: The Ribs Begin to Rise
Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland
26 July – 6 December 2025

Interview by JULIET RIX
Filmed and edited by MARTIN KENNEDY

Ro Robertson, Red Lead, installation view, The Ribs Begin to Rise, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, July 2025. Photo: Chris Davison.

Left to right: Ro Robertson, Workers in Motion and She Moves Out, installation view, The Ribs Begin to Rise, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, July 2025. Photo: Chris Davison.