The Supervisors, 2024
Painted Steel

The Supervisors feature endangered, threatened, and at-risk species paired with rare botanical motifs from the unique and varied habitats throughout Washington where they once thrived. The design aesthetic is inspired by Plateau Pictorial Beadwork adapted to emphasize bold graphic silhouettes that balance realistic, recognizable organic forms with the abstract qualities which are a part of regional symbolic and pictographic traditions. Continue reading The Supervisors →

Companion Garden, 2024
Sub-laminated Digital Film in Glass

Recognizing the intimate connection between health and traditional foods, Companion Garden features six indigenous edible and medicinal plants: t́aqa (salal), t́iləqʷ (strawberry), sx̌ʷi (oregon grape), wədaʔx̌ (huckleberry), sćədᶻx̌ (nettle), and ćəḱapaʔ (wild rose). The designs carry forward Plateau Pictorial Beadwork traditions from the Interior Salish region. Each canopy Continue reading Companion Garden →

Vanishing Falls, 2024
Painted Mural

Vanishing Falls is a monumental mural which playfully nods to our relationships with water across time. Once, glaciers created the abundance of our region. This vibrancy is depicted through silhouettes of indigenous plants. Currently, water serves us in apparent and hidden ways. Continue reading Vanishing Falls →

Gather, Grounding, and Thank You & Goodbye, 2024
Coated Steel & Reflective Vinyl

Gather, Grounding, and Thank You & Goodbye are three interconnected artworks which express welcome, belonging, and gratitude. ‘Gather’, the three-panel entry door on Boren is inspired by twined gathering baskets. When the panels activate to open the door, Continue reading Gather, Grounding, and Thank You & Goodbye →

Biologic Ethos, 2023
Direct digital print on glass

Biologic Ethos is a series of three floral motifs depicting multiple life stages of indigenous plant species through compositions that carry forward Interior Plateau bead working traditions. Each motif represents a single plant species shown in various seasons. Continue reading Biologic Ethos →

Schema, 2022
Enamel on Porcelain Tile, 26’6” x 74’

Schema is a large-scale graphic mural that features an abstract map depicting layers of Seattle’s early history and idiosyncrasies. Composed into a vibrant grid, the artwork engages the aesthetic structure and color palette of turn of the century Native American beadwork.  The abstracted and symbolic imagery layers and contrasts Continue reading Schema →

Inhabitance, 2021
Steel, Oak Veneer, and Enameled Glass.

Inhabitance is a series of three interconnected artworks which highlight the exceptional diversity and significance of the Pacific Northwest biomes- the specific environments classified by the organisms that can live there. The Sentinels feature portraits of the land from Oregon’s astounding number of biomes, Continue reading Inhabitance →

Mini-Tahoma, 2021
Paint, Landscape Glass, Stainless Steel, LED Lighting.
Approximately 175’x 30′

In an homage to set design, this immersive installation utilizes painted elements, sculpture, lighting, and glass to reimagine the now dry Waterwall as a miniature tribute to Tahoma Glacier, one of the glacial reservoirs that are the basis of our regional abundance.  Continue reading Mini Tahoma →

 Antecedents, 2020
Dye sublimated image film, tempered glass, stainless steel, LED 6’x4’x3″ per box

Antecedents is a set of five light-boxes which blend inspirations from scientific practice, concepts rooted in Plateau origin stories, and ruminations on our relationships with the life-forms and ecosystems with which we share the world. Continue reading Antecedents →

In August 2019, the Museum of Glass Visiting Artist Residency Program hosted RYAN! in their world-class Hot Shop for one week to create new works in glass with the Hot Shop Team. This was a part of a 6-month residency series hosted in conjunction with two exhibitions grounded in indigenous artists. Continue reading Remains →

Waterways was a series of twelve temporary rain-activated medallions placed on sidewalks at intersections along the future tunnel’s path that correspond to where surface water runs toward the Ship Canal. The medallions featured imagery developed through public engagement workshops Continue reading Waterways →

Synecdoche, 2019
Vinyl, Acrylic. 46’ x 60’

Synecdoche features a cascade of transforming glyphs that draw motifs from the Burke collection and our world at large. Through reflections on nature, technology, and culture, a visual language is generated that explores the interconnectedness between disciplines of study and our everyday lived experience. Continue reading Synecdoche →

Seeking Visions for a Better World, 2019
Vinyl, 105 lineal feet

Seeking Visions for a Better World was a call for images and aspirational sentiments that invoke constructive visions of the future to counterbalance the preponderance of dystopic visions presented in pop-culture, literature, and media. Inspired by traditional pictographs and contemporary graffiti Continue reading Seeking Visions for a Better World →

Nexus, 2019
Bronze, Steel, Cedar, Glass, Ceramic, Copper, etched Concrete

Taking inspiration from childhood games of “playing store,” Nexus is staged as a trading space that you can step into, making room for imaginative play while also learning about inter-tribal relationships. The artwork references the exchange of Continue reading Nexus →

AURA was a photo booth mural where those attending an auction were photographed with a modified star chart overlayed with a map depicting the 27,000 pieces of human-made space trash currently being tracked (the largest/most dangerous of an estimated 5,000,000).

Commissioned by Artist Trust
Seattle Center, Seattle, WA

Phantom Lands
Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture
October 4, 2018 – January 20, 2019

Phantom Lands, a solo exhibition at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Washington, forms connections between United States History, Okanogan lore, and current events to ignite conversations about place, use of space and our relationship to the environment. Continue reading Phantom Lands →

Squeeze, 2018
Acrylic, vinyl, steel cord, and aluminum.

SQUEEZE illustrates the rapidly rising cost of living in our region through a site-specific performance and series of temporary artworks. It began with 18 sculptural price tags of varying oversized scales installed by a two-person crew throughout Downtown Bellevue Continue reading SQUEEZE →

NOT FRAGILE
Curated by RYAN! Feddersen
Center for Contemporary Native Art, Portland Art Museum
September 7, 2018 – June 9, 2019

Though often associated with delicacy, glass is forged through intense and violent forces—a meteorite impacting the earth, a nuclear bomb detonating, or a 2,000 °F crucible. Not Fragile features artists from across the Pacific Northwest who use glass in innovative ways to impart messages of strength, resilience, and insubordination. Continue reading NOT FRAGILE →

Coyote Now Epic, 2018
Archival pigment print on Photo-Tex and cast crayon, 10’x 72′

Coyote Now Epic, created for the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, was the largest iteration of the Coyote Now saga to date, covering the walls of an entire gallery floor-to-ceiling. This immersive work was an invitation to think about the trickster, Coyote, as an active player in contemporary events Continue reading Coyote Now Epic →

The Post Human Archive, 2018
Mixed Media Installation and Website.

The Post Human Archive, was an interactive artwork and thought experiment created for the Double Exposure Education Gallery at the Seattle Art Museum. This project explored conflicts surrounding Edward Curtis’s images of Native people by inviting visitors to put themselves in a similar position of being documented and defined by an outside force.

Continue reading THE POST HUMAN ARCHIVE →

In Red Ink
Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA
July 7, 2018 – September 23, 2018

A major exhibit of recent works by contemporary Native American artists, curated by artist RYAN! Feddersen (Okanogan /Arrow Lakes), with Chloe Dye Sherpe. In Red Ink, forms a corrective lens on stereotypical and historicized depictions of Native American identity by highlighting artists who are addressing their own histories and traditions while simultaneously reflecting their current realities within a living culture.  Continue reading IN RED INK →

Canaries, 2018.
Coal, Construction toys, and scrub brushes.

Canaries is part cautionary allegory on how we interact with the environment, part exploration on how “play” teaches us how to think about the world. Canaries was inspired by the oxymoron of clean coal rhetoric paired with watching children play gleefully at industries that are major players in the destruction of the environment and our health. Continue reading Canaries →

Kill the Indian, Save the Man, 2017
Vinyl, thermoch­­­romic ink, charting tape, astro turf, and laser-cut acrylic.

This artwork can be touched. The black bars are coated in ink that turns translucent through body heat. The piece depicts three systems of state-sponsored cultural genocide: Indian Removal Policy, a system that displaced communities from traditional lands onto ever shrinking reservations. With each push of westward expansion, there was a corresponding decimation of native populations. The mass slaughter of the bison, which was endorsed by the US Army, who’s Generals routinely led state sponsored hunting excursions with the express purpose of annihilating the bison under the motto “Kill every buffalo you can! Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone.” And Indian Boarding Schools, Continue reading Kill the Indian, Save the Man- Borderlands →

Black Snake Rising, 2017
Vinyl, 11′ x 52′

Pouring in as a coiling nest, this sea of oil depicts black snakes flowing in a progression of life-scale petroleum-based products transitioning into species most affected by oil spills. The artworks scale and implied motion amplify the impression of being drown in an ocean filled with our necessities, indulgences, and consequences. Continue reading Black Snake Rising →

Micro Spill, 2016
Acrylic, cement, and astro turf in a snow globe. 7”x7”x11”
Edition of 3.

Created in support of the NODAPL Standing Rock movement, this artwork is a reminder of the power we hold in our hands over the environment. When flipped, this miniature cross section of the Dakota Access Pipeline will “leak” black oil (glitter) mucking the globe. Please shake gently. Continue reading Micro Spill →

This artwork is a survey of Indian Boarding Schools Operating from 1850-2017. The map appears in a censored state, with black ink obscuring the content.  This special ink can be made transparent using the heat of touch. The viewer is encouraged to touch the artwork to reveal details obscured at first glance.  Continue reading Kill the Indian, Save the Man →

The Happenings Kiosk began as a Call for Submissions, directing the viewer via QR code to a submission form to contribute text and images based on the prompts: What Happened? and What Will Happen? Inspired by the words, ideas and pictures submitted, The Happenings Kiosk was transformed Continue reading Happenings →

A wire-framed giantess sits reclining on stairs within the Maker Faire participants’ reach. Using the open grid and the wire, the figure relies on the audience’s participation to transform from her ethereal outline to a colorful dense figure through the weaving of colorful flagging tape by audience members. Continue reading Reclining Figure →