From 3 July 2014, Manchester Art Gallery will present 'Make every show like it's your last', a major exhibition of work by renowned British conceptual artist, Ryan Gander. At the heart of the exhibition lies the concept of the imagination. Focusing on two recent themes in Gander's practice, 'Imagineering' and the 'Culturefield', the exhibition will bring together works previously unseen in the UK to highlight the artist's playful wit as well as explore the relationships between author, work and viewer where the rules are constantly redefined. Returning to the city where he studied his undergraduate degree, Gander will illustrate his close connection to Manchester through the creation of new work made exclusively for the exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery.

The act of storytelling has long played an important role in Gander's work and 'Make every show like it's your last' builds on this tradition to explore the way ambiguous objects can act as vessels for multiple narratives. The works on display will also highlight Gander's multidisciplinary process, and pieces will range from paintings, sculpture, film and photography, installations, slideshows, and even advertising campaigns on the streets of Manchester. Bringing together multifarious biographical, narrative and conceptual elements, the exhibition will reflect Gander's interest in the nature of art production and the perception of objects, presenting a complex puzzle to be solved.

Exclusively to the Manchester Art Gallery presentation of this exhibition, Ryan Gander will be unveiling the latest work of his Degas' Dancer series 'The Retinal Account, or And when you are older you will go away, You'll see injustice and you'll see pain'. Gander is interested in the reinterpretation of iconic figures in art and has worked with Degas' Dancer since 2008. As part of this series he enables the female figure to step down from her plinth, remove her tutu and explore the exhibition space that surrounds her. With each new staging of this work, a new narrative sequence is proposed and the dancer's position in art history is questioned as she attempts to make a transition from modern to contemporary.