Ryan Rice

Ryan Rice, Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawake, is a curator, critic and creative consultant based in Toronto. His institutional and independent curatorial career spans 30 years in community, museums, artist run centres, public spaces and galleries. Rice focuses his extensive curatorial research and writing on contemporary and Onkwehón:we art. He has been published in numerous periodicals, journals and exhibition catalogues including Rendezvous with the Indigenous Art Collection: how to raise a flag in Curating Lively Objects, (Routledge Press 2021), Bait: Couzyn Van Heuvelen (Artspace 2019), Taiakoia’tenhatie / Freefall: The Photography of Shelley Niro for Shelley Niro: Scotiabank Award (Steidl/Scotiabank 2018) and Early Days: Indigenous Art at the McMichael (Figure 1 Publishing and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection 2023).

In 2022, Rice curated three solo exhibitions; Jordan Bennett: Souvenir at Onsite Gallery, Pageant: Natalie King at Centre [3] and Versification: January Rogers at daphne Art Centre and advanced two public art commissions as the Indigenous Public Art Curator with Waterfront Toronto. He also received the 2022 Changemakers BIPOC Award from Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries (GOG).

In 2023, he co-curated the 2023 Bonavista Biennale: HOST (Newfoundland) and he was appointed to OCAD University’s Onsite Gallery as the Executive Director and Curator, Indigenous Art. His contributions to community, leadership, and organizational experience includes co-founder of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, the Inuit Art Foundation Board of Directors, and an advisory member of Longhouse Labs and AArtplace.