About
‘Attention,’ the poet Mary Oliver wrote, ‘is the beginning of devotion.’ It’s also the starting point for Evelyn Rydz, a multidisciplinary artist whose diverse creative practice – which includes drawing, photography, site-responsive installations and participatory community projects that bring people together in person and online - is grounded by a commitment to close attention as a form of care and a means for connection. It’s evident in everything from her unique dinner parties, designed to foster deep listening and meaningful conversation, to her field studies of coastlines, which often have her peering through jewelers’ glasses and microscopes at manmade detritus that washes ashore.
- J. Houton, writer & art critic
Multidisciplinary artist Evelyn Rydz creates work across drawing, painting, site-responsive installations and participatory community projects. Her artistic practice centers on interconnected bodies of water, highlighting the complex relationships between personal histories, human impacts, and threats to natural and cultural ecosystems. In her participatory projects, Rydz creates spaces for intergenerational community conversations and collective artmaking exploring immigration, public health, ancestral foods, and ways we are shaped by our sense of home, from local to global.
She is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, Brother Thomas Fellowship, SMFA Traveling Fellowship, Artist Resource Trust Grant, Visual Arts Finalist of the Cintas Knight Foundation, and most recently of the 2020-21 U.S. Latinx Art Forum Charla Fund and the 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship.
Rydz’s recent exhibitions include features at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Cambridge, MA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Galeria Ponce + Robles, Madrid, Spain; Anchorage Museum, AK; USC Fisher Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL; Tufts University Art Galleries, Medford, MA; Palmer Art Museum, Penn State University, PA; Jordan Snitzer Museum of Art, Eugene, OR; Palacio de Justicia, Matanzas, Cuba; El Parque Cultural del Caribe, Barranquilla, Colombia; DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA among others.
Rydz is committed to creating participatory community projects, and has collaborated with the List Visual Arts Center at MIT, University of Massachusetts, ICA Watershed, Boston University's 808 Gallery, Urbano Project and the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art.
Rydz’s artwork has been reviewed in Boston Art Review, TIME, Hyperallergic, The Boston Globe, WGBH, WBUR, Edible Boston, among others. Her work is part of collections including the Federal Reserve Bank, Barr Foundation, Tufts University Art Galleries, Fitchburg Art Museum, DeCordova Museum, and Fidelity Investments.
Rydz received her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and is currently Professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Links to other Projects
Comida Casera
A La Mesa
Drawing on Love & Justice
Sketchbook Collective
Salty > Sour Seas