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Rial Rye (b. 1987) is a self-taught, Atlanta-based artist whose work examines how historical record-keeping systems privilege those whose identities fit within their taxonomies. As a queer multiracial person, Rye uses an autoethnographic approach to challenge the primacy of institutionally recognized systems of legacy creation — including procreation, surname inheritance, and land ownership — which have been, and continue to be, systemically denied to queer, femme, and BIPOC individuals. Rye’s work blurs traditional artistic classifications, employing ancient, contemporary, and futuristic aesthetics to retroactively construct an artifactual history in which to situate his work’s present and project it into the future, while unapologetically using his own name as a visual element and guerrilla method of documenting his existence.