Nikolas Ryan Announced as Winner of Inaugural UCD Art Collection Award for Transcendent Archives
The UCD Art Collection Award represents an exciting new partnership between NCAD and UCD
The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) and University College Dublin (UCD) are proud to announce that artist Nikolas Ryan has been selected as the first-ever recipient of the UCD Art Collection Award for his groundbreaking project Transcendent Archives.
Launched this year, the UCD Art Collection Award represents an exciting new partnership between NCAD and UCD. Open to all final-year graduating students across undergraduate, postgraduate, and higher diploma programmes at NCAD, the award seeks to support emerging artists and expand UCD’s dynamic and inclusive art collection.
Ryan’s project, Transcendent Archives, stood out for its powerful engagement with questions of history, identity, and institutional memory. A digital, game-based artwork, the piece challenges traditional archival practices by centring transgender narratives that have historically been erased or marginalised. Drawing inspiration from Crip Theory and "Choose Your Own Adventure" games, the interactive archive invites users to co-create and navigate histories in a participatory, anti-institutional way.
"This work is a deeply moving and intellectually rigorous contribution to the UCD Art Collection," said Dr Fernando Sánchez-Migallón Cano, UCD Art Collection Curator. "Nikolas’s work is not only a striking visual and conceptual piece, but also an urgent and necessary intervention. This award highlights the significance of platforms that empower marginalised voices, and we are incredibly proud to see his work represented in UCD’s collection."
Similarly, Professor Sarah Glennie, Director at NCAD, stated:
“Nikolas Ryan is a very deserving recipient of this very important new award. NCAD has long been immensely proud of Nikolas' important and distinctive practice, which developed during his time at NCAD as both an undergraduate and postgraduate student. It is a huge honour that this work is now entering the UCD Collection as he graduates from our MFA, and I would like to thank UCD for their visionary support of Ireland's next generation of artists through this very exciting new collaboration with NCAD.”
Nikolas Ryan (he/him) is an emerging new media artist currently completing his MA in Art & Social Action at NCAD. As a trans person of colour, his work often addresses themes of identity, power, and historical representation through the lens of digital technologies. His multidisciplinary practice incorporates gamification, animation, sound, video, and immersive installation.
Ryan has previously exhibited at the 2024 BETA Festival at the NCAD Gallery and the RDS Visual Art Awards at IMMA. In 2025, his work featured in Living Canvas at IMMA on Europe’s largest digital art screen.
By acquiring Transcendent Archives, UCD not only recognises a powerful and timely artwork but also affirms its commitment to fostering inclusive, socially engaged art that provokes dialogue and inspires transformation.
Image: Nikolas Ryan, Transition To Transcendence, installation view, RDS Visual Arts Awards 2023, IMMA. Photo by Leon Farrell.