Biography

Grace C. Ryder was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. She attended the Packer Collegiate Institute for high school where she solidified her interests in art making. Her junior year she attended the Oxbow School in Napa, CA where she investigated her painting and darkroom photography skills. 

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Grace started school at Kenyon College in 2017 where she was originally a math major but chose to switch back to her original love of art, inspired mostly by the artistic growth she experienced during a painting class during the fall semester. 

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During her first semester as a full time art major, the covid-19 pandemic hit and she chose to take a year off between her Junior and Senior year. Grace moved to Cleveland, OH and began working as a studio assistant for ceramicist Kristen Cliffel. She learned the ins and outs of ceramics and printmaking in the studio and through classes in the greater Cleveland area. 

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Grace returned to Kenyon College in August of 2021 as a senior studio art major and continued to investigate painting and improved on her sculpture skills. During this time she also operated as the lead canvas shop tech for the art building where she taught her peers how to use power tools and build stretchers. Grace passed her senior thesis in April of 2022 with her piece Hallowed. She graduated in May of 2022 with a BA in studio art and a minor in math. 

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Grace is currently in the second year of her MFA in Visual Arts at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art at Washington University in St. Louis. She TAs for different sculpture and ceramic classes and works in the wood, metal and ceramic shops as a monitor.