Rial Rye

I am a self-taught, mixed-media artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. I work in wood, resin, cement, dye, and acrylic paint. I began my artistic practice, part-time, in 2016 and have been a full-time artist since 2022. My work is rooted in my experiences as a queer, multiracial person of Enslaved African, Indigenous American, and Ashkenazi Jewish descent.

Having never been White enough, Black enough, Native enough, Jewish enough, masculine enough, feminine enough - never enough of whatever was needed to be legible within Western sociopolitical structures - I have learned to see the power inherent in the fact that my identity and very existence disrupt the binaristic logics which dictate the distribution of authority, resources, and safety in America.

Aesthetically, I similarly challenge the boundaries of movements, styles, periods, and geographies by freely blending and juxtaposing elements from a diverse set of artistic and cultural traditions, including Naïvism, Neo-Expressionism, Cubism, and traditional African and North American art forms. Thematically, my work explores grief and trauma, both generational and personal. I learned not to cry at the age of four, following the death of my younger sister due to a rare genetic condition, called Tay-Sachs disease, which is common amongst Ashkenazi Jews.

Nobody told me I should not cry.

But, I knew I needed to be strong for people around me who, at that time, could not be strong for themselves. I never grieved her death.

It remains hard for me to grieve. My art, typically depicting weeping figures, is how I materialize these emotions in physical form, so that they are acknowledged, released, and even ritualized, even if not through my own crying. It is my hope that my art can be similarly healing for viewers who, like me, carry the burden of ungrieved trauma and can benefit from grieving vicariously through my works.