Ryan Rice, BFA 93, newly appointed chair of Indigenous visual culture and curatorial studies at OCAD University.
“The position ties in neatly with my existing experience as a curator,” says Rice on his new role at the Toronto-based school.
The Indigenous visual culture program at OCAD University takes a critical approach to First Nations, Inuit and Métis art and design — both nationally and internationally.
“The program is unconventional and innovative. It has great potential to develop and grow,” says Rice.
Rice was previously chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico — a position he held for nearly five years. He has also contributed his talent to the likes of the Walter Philips Gallery in Banff, Alberta.
“Representation is the focus of my artistic practice,” says Rice. “It has allowed me to insert an Indigenous presence into a cultural landscape where it is often missing.”
Rice’s community involvement began at Concordia, where he studied printmaking.
“My role as curator developed out of being an artist and through the formation of Nation to Nation,” says Rice of the Indigenous art collective he co-founded with two fellow grads, Eric Robertson, MFA 94 and Skawennati Fragnito, GrDipl 96, BA 92.