2025-2026 AALANA & BIPOC Inclusion Fellowship Recipient:

Rial Rye

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Rial Rye (b. 1987) is a self-taught, Atlanta-based artist whose work examines the valuation and visibility of labor in the United States. Repurposing as art media the tools of working class occupations, like construction, manufacturing, childcare, and custodial work, Rye imbues these items with an aesthetic beauty, elevating them to positions of prominent display that they are typically denied.
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Rye's work has been supported by The Nexus Fund, The City of Madison Public Arts Commission, and The Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center Studio Artist Program. He has exhibited widely across the United States

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“I am a self-taught sculptor living and working in Atlanta, GA. My artistic practice examines the historical valuation and visibility of labor in the United States. Repurposing as art media the tools of working class occupations, like construction, manufacturing, childcare, and custodial work, I aim to imbue these items with an aesthetic beauty, elevating them to positions of prominent display that they are typically denied. By transforming these materials into works of fine art, I simultaneously render them useless and transform them into objects of wealth and status, inverting their utilitarian and economic value. In so doing, my work invites viewers to critically reflect upon what forms of labor are rewarded in American culture, and the often paradoxical devaluation of the work that is most hazardous, strenuous, and essential to the building and maintenance of the wealthiest nation in history.” - Rial Rye