ABOUT

nik rye is an award-winning artist, graphic designer & illustrator, educator, curator, and grassroots organizer who lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. Characterized by provocative and bold imagery often fused with audience participation, rye’s dogged storytelling is psychedelic, absurd, dark, and frank. First recognized for their visceral illustrations and photography, they now experiment across genres, including socially engaged practice, digital art, ceramics, and performance.

Before completing their postsecondary education, nik rye unconventionally toured the USA as an artist-activist, writer, and puppeteer mentoring under protest artists like Keith McHenry. They studied Graphic Design at Broward College before pursuing Ceramics and Printmaking at Florida State University. At the pandemic’s peak, rye organized food justice and housing rights initiatives as they entered their MFA in Studio Art. This situation led them to investigate throughlines in design/marketing, social practice, performance art, and mutual aid — an amalgam they continue exploring in their personal and professional portfolios.

In addition to social practice and design-based projects, rye is an ardent educator and curator whose central philosophy emphasizes community collaboration and service. For many years, they have instructed university-level art courses, taught workshops, led town forums, and lectured at conventions such as the Art and Social Justice Symposium. As a curator committed to decentralization and postcolonialism, nik rye has successfully facilitated enriching and celebratory exhibitions that uplift marginalized populations and make art more accessible. Experimental and idealistic, they continue to explore the fringes of their practices concerning connection, justice, and innovation.