100 Notable alumni of
Rhode Island School of Design
Updated:
The Rhode Island School of Design is 471st in the world, 180th in North America, and 166th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the Rhode Island School of Design sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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James Franco
- Occupations
- film editorfilm actorfilm producerfilm directortelevision presenter
- Biography
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James Edward Franco is an American actor and filmmaker. He has starred in numerous films, including Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007), Milk (2008), Eat Pray Love (2010), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Spring Breakers (2012), and Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). He has collaborated with fellow actor Seth Rogen on multiple projects, including Pineapple Express (2008), This Is the End (2013), The Interview (2014), Sausage Party (2016), and The Disaster Artist (2017), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Franco's performance in 127 Hours (2010) earned a Best Actor nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards.
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Seth MacFarlane
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- Studied animation
- Occupations
- film producershowrunnerlyricistanimatortelevision producer
- Biography
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Seth Woodbury MacFarlane is an American actor, animator, writer, producer, director, comedian, and singer. He is the creator and star of the television series Family Guy and The Orville, and co-creator of the television series American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. He also co-wrote, co-produced, directed, and starred in the films Ted, its sequel Ted 2, and A Million Ways to Die in the West.
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David Byrne
- Occupations
- record producercomposerprintmakerwritersinger
- Biography
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David Byrne is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the new wave band Talking Heads.
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Gus Van Sant
- Occupations
- film directordirectoractorfilm producerfilm editor
- Biography
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Gus Green Van Sant Jr. is an American filmmaker, photographer, painter, and musician. He has earned acclaim as an independent filmmaker, and is considered to be one of the most prominent auteurs of the new queer cinema movement. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures, especially within gay culture.
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Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- Studied in 2007-2008
- Occupations
- aristocratdesignermilitary personnelracing automobile driver
- Biography
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Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, Duke of Värmland is the only son and the second of three children of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. As of 2022, Prince Carl Philip is fourth in the line of succession, after his older sister, Crown Princess Victoria, his niece and goddaughter Princess Estelle, and his nephew Prince Oscar. He lives with his wife, Princess Sofia, and four children in Villa Solbacken in Djurgården, Stockholm.
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Jemima Kirke
- Occupations
- painterfilm directoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Jemima Jo Kirke is a British-American artist, actress and director. She gained international acclaim through her role as Jessa Johansson in the 2012 HBO series Girls. She made her film debut in the 2005 indie short Smile for the Camera and her feature-length debut in Tiny Furniture (2010), as a favour for her childhood friend Lena Dunham.
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Sam Hyde
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- 2004-2007 graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts in film production
- Occupations
- comediantelevision actorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Samuel Whitcomb Hyde is an American comedian and a co-founder of the sketch comedy group Million Dollar Extreme (MDE), alongside Nick Rochefort and Charls Carroll. MDE gained notoriety on YouTube for their provocative, anti-sketch style and public pranks, including trolling staged performances at conventions and comedy clubs that pushed social boundaries and courted controversy. Widespread public attention followed one such satirical TEDx talk.
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Martin Mull
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- Graduated with Master of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- voice actoractorcomediantelevision actorfilm actor
- Biography
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Martin Eugene Mull was an American actor, musician, and painter. He became known on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, its spin-off Fernwood 2 Night, and America 2 Night. His other notable roles included Colonel Mustard in the 1985 film Clue, Leon Carp on Roseanne, Willard Kraft on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Vlad Masters/Vlad Plasmius on Danny Phantom, and Gene Parmesan on Arrested Development. He had a recurring role on Two and a Half Men as Russell, a drug-using, humorous pharmacist.
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Tina Weymouth
- Occupations
- songwriterbassistsingermusician
- Biography
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Martina Michèle Weymouth is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and a founding member and bassist of the new wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club, which she co-founded with her husband, Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz. In 2002, Weymouth was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Talking Heads.
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Shepard Fairey
- Occupations
- graffiti artistdesignerserigraphernew media artistmuralist
- Biography
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Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989, he designed the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campaign while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
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Brian Chesky
- Occupations
- computer scientistentrepreneur
- Biography
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Brian Joseph Chesky is an American businessman and industrial designer and the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb. Chesky is the 290th richest person in the world according to Forbes, with a net worth of $9.2 billion, largely due to his 10 percent ownership stake in Airbnb.
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Dale Chihuly
- Occupations
- photographerglassblowerinstallation artistsculptoruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Dale Chihuly is an American glass artist. He is well known in the field of blown glass, "moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture".
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Michael Dante DiMartino
- Occupations
- television directorfilm producerexecutive producerfilm directoranimator
- Biography
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Michael Dante DiMartino is an American animator, producer, writer, and director. He is best known, together with Bryan Konietzko, as the co-creator of the animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, both on Nickelodeon.
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Paul Graham
- Occupations
- writeressayistventure capitalistprogrammerjournalist
- Biography
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Paul Graham is an English-American computer scientist, writer, essayist, entrepreneur and investor. His work includes the programming language Arc, the startup Viaweb (later renamed Yahoo! Store), co-founding the startup accelerator and seed capital firm Y Combinator, a number of essays and books, and the media webpage Hacker News.
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Chris Frantz
- Occupations
- record producersongwriterdrummer
- Biography
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Charton Christopher Frantz is an American musician and record producer. He is the drummer for both Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, both of which he co-founded with wife and Talking Heads bassist, Tina Weymouth. In 2002, Frantz was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Talking Heads.
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Chris Van Allsburg
- Occupations
- novelistchildren's writerscience fiction writerconcept artistillustrator
- Biography
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Chris Van Allsburg is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for Jumanji (1981) and The Polar Express (1985), both of which he also wrote, and were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, he was a 1986 U.S. nominee for the biennial International Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's books. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan in April 2012.
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Bryan Konietzko
- Occupations
- executive producerart directorwriterfilm produceranimation director
- Biography
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Bryan Joseph Konietzko is an American animator, writer, producer and director. He is best known, together with Michael Dante DiMartino, as the co-creator and executive producer of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.
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Joe Gebbia
- Occupations
- computer scientist
- Biography
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Joseph Gebbia Jr. is an American designer and entrepreneur, and a co-founder of Airbnb. In 2025, he joined the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Gebbia was appointed by President Donald Trump as the first Chief Design Officer to lead the National Design Studio.
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Justin Lo
- Occupations
- singertelevision actorfilm actorsongwriterrecording artist
- Biography
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Justin Lo Ting Wei, known professionally by his stage name Jak Teen (Chinese: 側田), is a Hong Kong American singer-songwriter, actor and record producer working in Hong Kong.
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Robert Richardson
- Occupations
- cinematographer
- Biography
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Robert Bridge Richardson, ASC is an American cinematographer.
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Kara Walker
- Occupations
- illustratorphotographervisual artistarchitectural draftspersonprintmaker
- Biography
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Kara Elizabeth Walker is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, printmaker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. Walker was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 1997, at the age of 28, becoming one of the youngest ever recipients of the award. She has been the Tepper Chair in Visual Arts at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2015.
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Mitch Epstein
- Occupations
- photojournalistcinematographerjournalistartistphotographer
- Biography
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Mitchell Epstein is an American photographer and author. His books include Vietnam: A Book of Changes (1997); Family Business (2003), which won the 2004 Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award; Recreation: American Photographs 1973–1988 (2005); Mitch Epstein: Work (2006); American Power (2009); Berlin (2011); New York Arbor (2013); Rocks and Clouds (2018); Sunshine Hotel (2019); In India (2021); and Property Rights (2021).
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Heather Nova
- Occupations
- singerrecording artistsinger-songwriter
- Biography
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Heather Nova is a Bermudian singer-songwriter. As of 2022, she has released eleven full-length albums, six EPs and twelve singles.
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Angus MacLane
- Occupations
- screenwritervoice actorfilm directoranimator
- Biography
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Angus MacLane is an American animator, filmmaker and voice actor, best known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios. He co-directed the film Finding Dory (2016) and made his solo feature directorial debut with the Toy Story spin-off film Lightyear (2022). MacLane is also a Lego enthusiast and created the CubeDudes building format and designed a LEGO WALL-E that has become an official set from The Lego Group.
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Ilene Chaiken
- Occupations
- film producerscreenwritertelevision directortelevision producerexecutive producer
- Biography
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Ilene Chaiken is an American television producer, director, writer, and founder of Little Chicken Productions. Chaiken was co-creator, writer and executive producer on the television series The L Word and an executive producer on Empire, The Handmaid's Tale, and Law & Order: Organized Crime.
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David Hanson
- Occupations
- sculptorchief executive officerroboticist
- Biography
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David Hanson Jr. is an American roboticist who is the founder and chief executive officer of Hanson Robotics, a Hong Kong–based robotics company founded in 2013.
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Jill Stuart
- Occupations
- personal stylist
- Biography
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Jill Stuart is an American businesswoman and fashion designer based in New York City, where she has been operating since 1988. She established her eponymous label in 1993. She also has a significant international client base, particularly in Japan.
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Brian Selznick
- Occupations
- novelistwriterillustratorpuppeteerchildren's writer
- Biography
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Brian Selznick is an American illustrator and author best known as the writer of The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007), Wonderstruck (2011), The Marvels (2015) and Kaleidoscope (2021). He won the 2008 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration recognizing The Invention of Hugo Cabret. He is also known for illustrating children's books such as the covers of Scholastic's 20th-anniversary editions of the Harry Potter series.
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Julie Mehretu
- Occupations
- architectural draftspersonpainterartistprintmakervisual artist
- Biography
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Julie Mehretu is an Ethiopian American contemporary visual artist, known for her multi-layered paintings of abstracted landscapes on a large scale. Her paintings, drawings, and prints depict the cumulative effects of urban sociopolitical changes.
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Prince Peter of Serbia
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- Studied in 1999-2000
- Occupations
- graphic designeraristocrat
- Biography
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Peter Karageorgevitch, also known as Prince Peter of Serbia and Yugoslavia, is an American born Spanish-Serbian graphic designer and a member of the House of Karađorđević. He is the oldest grandchild and the first grandson of the last Yugoslav king, Peter II. Between his birth and his renunciation in 2022, he was known as the Hereditary Prince.
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Martha Coolidge
- Occupations
- film producerscreenwriterdirectorfilm editorfilm director
- Biography
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Martha Coolidge is an American film director and former President of the Directors Guild of America. She has directed such films as Valley Girl, Real Genius and Rambling Rose.
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Archduke Dominic of Austria
- Occupations
- industrial designer
- Biography
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Dominic von Habsburg is a member of the Grand Ducal Family of Tuscany and the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
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Marissa Nadler
- Occupations
- singerpaintersinger-songwritercomposerguitarist
- Biography
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Marissa Nadler is an American singer-songwriter. Active since 2000, she is currently signed to Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union, and released her tenth full-length studio album, New Radiations, in August 2025. Her music has been characterized as blending "traditional folk, Gothic Americana, and dreamy pop into an original musical framework". Her music "is rooted in old-school country and folk but brings in elements of experimental and black metal". Sometimes the term "dream folk" has been invoked to describe her work.
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Jessica Walsh
- Occupations
- graphic designer
- Biography
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Jessica Walsh is an American designer, art director, illustrator and educator. She was a partner of the design studio Sagmeister & Walsh (2010–2019), and the founder of the creative agency &Walsh (2019–present). &Walsh is one of the.1% of creative agencies owned by women. She has taught at the School of Visual Arts (SVA).
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Walt Simonson
- Occupations
- comics writercomics artist
- Biography
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Walter Simonson is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics' Thor from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill. He is also known for the creator-owned work Star Slammers, which he inaugurated in 1972 as a Rhode Island School of Design thesis. He has also worked on other Marvel titles such as X-Factor and Fantastic Four, on DC Comics books including Detective Comics, Manhunter, Metal Men and Orion, and on licensed properties such as Star Wars, Alien, Battlestar Galactica and Robocop vs. Terminator.
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David Mazzucchelli
- Occupations
- comics artist
- Biography
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David John Mazzucchelli is an American comics artist and writer, known for his work on seminal superhero comic book storylines Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One, as well as for graphic novels in other genres, such as Asterios Polyp and City of Glass: The Graphic Novel. He is also an instructor who teaches comic book storytelling at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
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David Macaulay
- Occupations
- draftspersonchildren's writeruniversity teacherarchitectillustrator
- Biography
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David Macaulay is a British-born American illustrator and writer. His works include Cathedral (1973), The Way Things Work (1988), and its updated revisions The New Way Things Work (1998) and The Way Things Work Now (2016). His illustrations have been featured in nonfiction books combining text and illustrations explaining architecture, design, and engineering, and he has written a number of children's fiction books.
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Christy Karacas
- Occupations
- television directormusicianfilm directoranimatortelevision producer
- Biography
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Christy C. Karacas is an American animator, writer, producer, director, voice actor and musician. He is known for creating Superjail! and Ballmastrz: 9009 and Robotomy for Cartoon Network, the former two for its programming block Adult Swim. He is also a guitarist of the rock band Cheeseburger.
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Salima Hashmi
- Occupations
- painterwriteranti-nuclear activist
- Biography
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Salima Hashmi is a Pakistani painter, artist, former college professor, anti-nuclear weapons activist and former caretaker minister in Sethi caretaker ministry. She has served for four years as a professor and the dean of National College of Arts. She is the firstborn daughter of the renowned poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and his British-born wife Alys Faiz.
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Nicole Eisenman
- Occupations
- painterdraftspersonprintmakerinstallation artistsculptor
- Biography
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Nicole Eisenman is a French-born American artist known for her oil paintings and sculptures. She has been awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship (1996), the Carnegie Prize (2013), and has thrice been included in the Whitney Biennial (1995, 2012, 2019). On September 29, 2015, she won a MacArthur Fellowship award for "restoring the representation of the human form a cultural significance that had waned during the ascendancy of abstraction in the 20th century."
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Nicole Miller
- Occupations
- fashion designer
- Biography
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Nicole Miller is an American fashion designer and businesswoman.
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Zio Ziegler
- Years
- 1988-.. (age 38)
- Occupations
- muralist
- Biography
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Zio Ziegler is an American visual artist. He is known best for his paintings and murals, many of which appear in the Mission District of San Francisco, as well as around the world such as Tokyo, Los Angeles, London and Italy.
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Roni Horn
- Occupations
- painterdraftspersonwriterartistsculptor
- Biography
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Roni Horn is an American visual artist and writer. The granddaughter of Eastern European immigrants, she was born in New York City, where she lives and works. She is currently represented by Xavier Hufkens in Brussels and Hauser & Wirth. She is openly gay.
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Roz Chast
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- In 1977 graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- comics artistcartoonist
- Biography
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Roz Chast is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for The New Yorker. Since 1978, she has published more than 1000 cartoons in The New Yorker. She also publishes cartoons in Scientific American and the Harvard Business Review.
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Tobias Frere-Jones
- Occupations
- designertypographertype designeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Tobias Frere-Jones is an American type designer who works in New York City. He operates the company Frere-Jones Type and teaches typeface design at the Yale School of Art MFA program.
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Meri Katrantzou
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- Studied in 2003
- Occupations
- fashion designer
- Biography
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Mary Katrantzou is a Greek fashion designer who lives and works in London.
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Sam Posey
- Occupations
- journalistFormula One driver
- Biography
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Samuel Felton Posey is an American former racing driver and sports broadcast journalist.
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Kenneth Goldsmith
- Occupations
- university teacherinstallation artistcomputer artistperformance artistpoet
- Biography
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Kenneth Goldsmith is an American poet and critic. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb and an artist-in-residence at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing (CPCW) at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches. He is also a senior editor of PennSound at the University of Pennsylvania. He hosted a weekly radio show at WFMU from 1995 until June 2010. He published 32 books including ten books of poetry, notably Fidget (2000), Soliloquy (2001), Day (2003) and his American trilogy, The Weather (2005), Traffic (2007), and Sports (2008), 'Seven American Deaths and Disasters (2011), and 'Capital: New York Capital of the Twentieth Century (2015). He also was the author of three books of essays, Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age (2011), Wasting Time on The Internet (2016), and Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of UbuWeb (2020). In 2013, he was appointed the Museum of Modern Art's first poet laureate.
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Ryan Trecartin
- Occupations
- film directorcasting directorcomposerpaintervideo artist
- Biography
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Ryan Trecartin is an American artist and filmmaker currently based in Athens, Ohio. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a BFA in 2004. Trecartin has since lived and worked in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Miami. His creative partner and long-term collaborator is Lizzie Fitch, an artist that he has been working with since 2000.
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Carlos Celdran
- Occupations
- comediantour guideperformance artist
- Biography
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John Charles Edward "Carlos" Pamintuan Celdran was a Filipino artist, tour guide, segment TV host and cultural activist. He was known for "Walk This Way", a guided tour of the Manila districts of Intramuros, Binondo, and Quiapo using a combination of music, visuals, and history lectures to immerse tourists into what life was like during the Spanish and American colonization periods of the Philippines. He was also known for engaging in a controversial protest, known colloquially as his "Dámaso stunt", in the Manila Cathedral in September 2010, leading to his arrest for "offending religious feelings" as per Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code. In January 2019, the conviction forced Celdran to go on self-exile in Madrid, Spain, where he died of cardiac arrest on October 13 of that year.
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Brian Chippendale
- Occupations
- graphic artistmusician
- Biography
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Brian Chippendale is an American musician and artist, known as the drummer and vocalist for the experimental noise rock band Lightning Bolt and for his graphic art. Chippendale is based in Providence, Rhode Island.
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Grace Lin
- Occupations
- children's writernovelistwriter
- Biography
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Grace Lin is a Taiwanese-American children's writer and illustrator. She is a Newbery, Geisel, and Caldecott honoree, known for contributing to and advocating for Asian American representation and diversity in children’s literature. She has published more than 25 books, all of which are written for young and middle-grade audiences. Much of her work features young Asian and Asian American characters in both everyday and fantastical settings.
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Carol Twombly
- Occupations
- type designergraphic designer
- Biography
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Carol Twombly is an American designer, best known for her type design. She worked as a type designer at Adobe Systems from 1988 through 1999, during which time she designed, or contributed to the design of, many typefaces, including Trajan, Myriad and Adobe Caslon.
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Todd Hido
- Occupations
- photographerartist
- Biography
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Todd Hido is an American photographer. He has produced 17 books, had his work exhibited widely and included in various public collections. Hido is currently an adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
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Kenneth Jay Lane
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- Studied in 1954
- Occupations
- art collectorsocialitejewelry designer
- Biography
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Kenneth Jay Lane was an American costume jewelry designer.
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Charles Ying
- Occupations
- singer
- Biography
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Charles Ying is a Cantopop singer and actor from Hong Kong. After singing the theme song Do I Still Love You of the film Leaving me, Loving you , he was signed by Leon Lai of East Asia Record Production and became one of the new hotly promoted new artists in 2005.
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Cassandra Jenkins
- Years
- 1984-.. (age 42)
- Occupations
- singer
- Biography
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Cassandra Jenkins is an American singer-songwriter from New York City.
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Walton Ford
- Occupations
- printmakerpainter
- Biography
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Walton Ford is an American visual artist who makes paintings and prints in the style of naturalist illustrations, often depicting extinct species. In his more recent series of work such as shown in his 2025 "Tutto" exhibition at Gagosian Gallery in New York City, he has taken a more painterly approach. Each of his paintings is a meticulous, realistic study in flora and fauna, and is filled with symbols, clues, and jokes referencing texts ranging from colonial literature, to folktales, to travel guides. The paintings are complex allegorical narratives that critique the history of colonialism, industrialism, politics, natural science, and humanity's effect on the environment.
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Brian Gibson
- Years
- 1975-.. (age 51)
- Occupations
- composervoice actorguitaristdrummer
- Biography
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Brian Gibson is an American musician, artist, and video game designer based in Providence, Rhode Island. Gibson is best known as the bassist for the band Lightning Bolt. In the summer of 2015 he co-founded the game development company Drool. At Drool, he created the art and music for the video game Thumper and co-designed the game alongside Marc Flury. Thumper was released with critical acclaim in October 2016. He was previously a lead artist working at video game company Harmonix since 2001, but quit in the summer of 2015.
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Charles Laquidara
- Occupations
- radio personality
- Biography
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Charles Laquidara is an American radio disc jockey whose show, The Big Mattress, was broadcast in the Boston, Massachusetts, area for nearly 30 years (1969–1996) on WBCN. He then spent four years doing The Charles Laquidara Radio Hour on WZLX. He hosted Charles Laquidara radio, an internet radio station from his home on Maui for several years and left Hawai'i in February 2020 to be closer to his family, including his grandchildren.
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Steven Kellogg
- Occupations
- writerchildren's writerillustratordraftsperson
- Biography
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Steven Castle Kellogg is an American author and illustrator who has created more than 90 children's books.
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Jesse Sykes
- Occupations
- singer-songwriter
- Biography
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Jesse Sykes is an American singer and songwriter, best known for her band Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, which was formed in 1999 with Phil Wandscher.
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Alfonso A. Ossorio
- Occupations
- paintersculptorartistdraftsperson
- Biography
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Alfonso Angel Yangco Ossorio was a Filipino American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Manila in 1916 to wealthy Filipino parents from the province of Negros Occidental. His heritage was Hispanic, Filipino, and Chinese. Between the ages of eight and thirteen, he attended school in England. At age fourteen, he moved to the United States. Ossorio attended Portsmouth Priory (now Portsmouth Abbey School) in Rhode Island, graduating in 1934. From 1934 to 1938, he studied fine art at Harvard University and then continued his studies at the Rhode Island School of Design. He became an American citizen in 1933 and served as a medical illustrator in the United States Army during World War II.
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Jason Lutes
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- In 1991 graduated with Bachelor of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- comics artistcartoonistcomics writer
- Biography
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Jason Lutes is an American comics creator. His work is mainly historical fiction, but he also works in traditional fiction. He is best-known for his Berlin series, which he wrote and drew over 22 years. He has also written a handful of other graphic novels, as well as many short pieces for anthologies and compilations. He now teaches comics at the Center for Cartoon Studies.
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Jill Greenberg
- Occupations
- photographer
- Biography
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Jill Greenberg is a Canadian-born American photographer and Pop artist. She is known for her portraits and fine art work that often features anthropomorphized animals that have been digitally manipulated with painterly effects. Her photography of animals is regarded for its capability to show a wide range of expressions and feelings that are comparable to that of a seasoned actor or actress. Some of the primates she has captured on film are actually celebrates in their own right, having been featured in different TV shows or movies. She is also highly recognized for her distinct, and stylized photography of celebrities including well known performers such as Gwen Stefani, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Clint Eastwood. She is also known for inserting her own strong opinions into her work. In reference to her work Greenberg states "They're portraits and they're personal but there's a little twist going on. An edge."
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Katie Gallagher
- Occupations
- fashion designer
- Biography
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Kathryn Marie "'Katie" Gallagher was an American fashion designer and founder of her own brand in New York City. Gallagher's designs were featured in Vogue Italia, Elle, Interview magazine, and Refinery 29 magazines. Refinery 29 identified as one of six designers to watch. In January 2010, Gallagher was named as a semi-finalist in the 2009/2010 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation search for emerging fashion designers.
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Jarrett J. Krosoczka
- Occupations
- writerchildren's writer
- Biography
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Jarrett J. Krosoczka is the author and illustrator of several graphic novels and picture books, most famously his Lunch Lady series.
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Sonny Liew
- Occupations
- comics artistillustratorphotographer
- Biography
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Sonny Liew Gene Sien is a Malaysian-born Singaporean comic artist and illustrator. He is best known for The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (2015).
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John Rocco
- Occupations
- illustratorwriter
- Biography
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Christopher John Rocco, simply known as John Rocco is an American illustrator of book covers and children's books. He is best known for illustrating the covers of books in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. He is the sole creator of some children's picture books.
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Arno Rafael Minkkinen
- Occupations
- photographerteacher
- Biography
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Arno Rafael Minkkinen is a Finnish-American photographer who works in the United States.
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Deborah Berke
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- Graduated with bachelor's degree in architecture and fine art
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
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Deborah Berke is an American architect and academic. She is the founder of TenBerke, formerly Deborah Berke Partners, a New York City-based architectural design firm. Berke is currently Dean and J.M. Hoppin Professor at the Yale School of Architecture, where she began teaching as an associate professor in 1987. At the time of her appointment in 2016, Berke became the first woman Dean of the school. In 2022, Deborah received the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education. She was awarded the 2025 AIA Gold Medal Award.
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Arlene Shechet
- Occupations
- artist
- Biography
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Arlene Shechet is an American sculptor known for her inventive, gravity-defying arrangements and experimental use of diverse materials. Critics describe her work as both technical and intuitive, hybrid and polymorphous, freely mixing surfaces, finishes, styles and references to create visual paradoxes. Her abstract-figurative forms often function as metaphors for bodily experience and the human condition, touching upon imperfection and uncertainty with humor and pathos. New York Times critic Holland Cotter wrote that her career "has encompassed both more or less traditional ceramic pots and wildly experimental abstract forms: amoebalike, intestinal, spiky, sexual, historically referential and often displayed on fantastically inventive pedestals … this is some of the most imaginative American sculpture of the past 20 years."
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Nader Tehrani
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
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Nader Tehrani is an Iranian-American designer and educator.
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Tavares Strachan
- Occupations
- artist
- Biography
-
Tavares Henderson Strachan is a Bahamian conceptual artist. His contemporary multi-media installations investigate science, technology, mythology, history, and exploration. He lives and works in New York City and Nassau, Bahamas.
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Diana Eng
- Occupations
- fashion designer
- Biography
-
Diana Eng is a Chinese-American fashion designer, author and fashion technologist based in New York. She is best known as contestant on the second season of the reality television program Project Runway. Eng is a co-founder of an art/electronic group called NYC Resistor, and authored a book called Fashion Geek.
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Bernard Khoury
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
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Bernard Khoury is a Lebanese architect. His work has been extensively published by the professional press. Khoury started an independent practice in 1993. Over the years, his office has developed an international reputation and a significant diverse portfolio of projects both locally and abroad.
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Veronica Vasicka
- Occupations
- radio personality
- Biography
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Veronica Vasicka is a photographer, record label founder, radio and club DJ. She is the founder of Minimal Wave Records, a record label focused on obscure electronic music from the 1970s and 1980s, as well as its sub label Cititrax, a platform for newer artists.
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Hashim Sarkis
- Occupations
- exhibition curatornon-fiction writeruniversity teacherarchitect
- Biography
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Hashim A. Sarkis is a Lebanese educator and architect. Since 2015, Sarkis has been Professor and Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also been the founding principal of Hashim Sarkis Studios since 1998.
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Clare Rojas
- Occupations
- textile artistpainteranimatordraftspersongraphic artist
- Biography
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Clare E. Rojas, also known by stage name Peggy Honeywell, is an American multidisciplinary artist. She is part of the Mission School. Rojas is "known for creating powerful folk-art-inspired tableaus that tackle traditional gender roles." She works in a variety of media, including painting, installations, video, street art, and children's books. Rojas lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Paolo Rivera
- Occupations
- inkercoloristpencillerillustrator
- Biography
-
Paolo Manuel Rivera is an American comic book artist. He is known for illustrating the Mythos series of one-shots and several issues of Spider-Man as well as his collaboration with writer Mark Waid, his father/inker Joe Rivera and colorist Javier Rodríguez on Daredevil. Although gaining acclaim and recognition through his early fully painted works, he has since moved on to more traditional comics process of pencilling, inking, and coloring.
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Amy Devers
- Occupations
- carpentertelevision presenter
- Biography
-
Amy Devers is an American furniture designer, carpenter, television personality and design blogger. She currently is the host (with Alan Luxmore) and design expert on A&E's Fix This Yard, the host of Victory Garden’s edibleFEAST on PBS, and a design and carpentry expert on OWN’s Home Made Simple. In the past she has hosted design oriented programs such as Freeform Furniture on DIY, Designer People on Ovation, and was a carpenter on TLC’s Trading Spaces.
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Rosanne Somerson
- Occupations
- educatorwoodworkerartistfurniture designer
- Biography
-
Rosanne Somerson is an American-born woodworker, furniture designer/maker, educator, and former President of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). An artist connected with the early years of the Studio Furniture, her work and career have been influential to the field.
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Amy Davis
- Born in
-
United States - Occupations
- singerfilm directorartist
- Biography
-
Amy Davis is an American fashion illustrator, filmmaker, and lo-fi musician. Her illustrations have been in shows all over the world, as well as published in magazines and books. She is recently divorced from filmmaker Jon Moritsugu, and helps run his film production company, Apathy Productions.
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Karen LaMonte
- Occupations
- visual artistsculptordesignerglass artist
- Biography
-
Karen LaMonte is an American artist known for her life-size sculptures in ceramic, bronze, marble, and cast glass.
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Katie Salen
- Years
- 1969-.. (age 57)
- Occupations
- animatorgame designer
- Biography
-
Katie Salen Tekinbaş is an American game designer, animator, and educator. She is a professor at the University of California, Irvine. Previously, she taught at DePaul University College of Computing and Digital Media, Parsons The New School for Design the University of Texas at Austin, New York University, and the Rhode Island School of Design. She has an MFA in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design.
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Rebecca Allen
- Years
- 1954-.. (age 72)
- Occupations
- designeruniversity teacherartistinstallation artistvideo artist
- Biography
-
Rebecca Allen is an American digital artist inspired by the aesthetics of motion, the study of perception and behavior and the potential of advanced technology. Her artwork takes the form of experimental video, large-scale performances, live simulations and virtual and augmented reality art installations. It addresses issues of gender, identity and what it means to be human as technology redefines our sense of reality.
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Erica Henderson
- Born in
- United States
- Occupations
- comics artistvisual artistillustrator
- Biography
-
Erica Henderson is an American three-time Eisner Award-winning comics artist and animator, known for her work on The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Jughead, and for her animation work on Venture Bros.
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Natalia Almada
- Occupations
- film directordocumentariandocumentary filmmakerphotographer
- Biography
-
Natalia Almada is a Mexican-American photographer and filmmaker. Her work as a filmmaker focuses on Mexican history, politics, and culture in insightful and poetic films that push the boundaries of how the documentary form addresses social issues. Her films include "Everything Else " (2016), El Velador (2011), El General (2009), All Water Has a Perfect Memory (2001), and Al Otro Lado (2005), and her work has appeared at numerous national and international venues, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Sundance Film Festival, the Guggenheim Museum, the Munich International Film Festival, and the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. She won the 2009 Sundance Directing Award Documentary for her film El General. She is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow and the first Latina filmmaker to win the award.
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Nancy Elizabeth Prophet
- Enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design
- Studied in 1914-1918
- Occupations
- artistsculptor
- Biography
-
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet was an American artist of African-American and Native American ancestry, known for her sculpture. She was the first African-American graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1918 and later studied at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris during the early 1920s. She became noted for her work in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1934, Prophet began teaching at Spelman College, expanding the curriculum to include modeling and history of art and architecture. Prophet died in 1960 at the age of 70.
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Rose B. Simpson
- Occupations
- artist
- Biography
-
Rose B. Simpson is a Tewa of Khaʼpʼoe Ówîngeh (Santa Clara Pueblo) mixed-media artist and sculptor who works in ceramic, metal, fashion, painting, music, performance, and installation. Simpson is the daughter of renowned Santa Clara Pueblo artist Roxanne Swentzell. She lives in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Her work has been exhibited at SITE Santa Fe (2008, 2015); the Heard Museum (2009, 2010); the Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe (2010); the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian (2008); the Denver Art Museum; Pomona College Museum of Art (2016); Ford Foundation Gallery (2019); The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian (2017); the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2019); the Savannah College of Art and Design (2020); the Nevada Museum of Art (2021); Whitney Museum of American Art (2023, 2024), and the Norton Museum of Art (2024).
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Cheryl D. Miller
- Occupations
- writerdesigner
- Biography
-
Cheryl D. Holmes Miller is an American graphic designer, Christian minister, writer, artist, theologian, and decolonizing historian. She is known for her contributions to racial and gender equality in the graphic design field, and establishing one of the first black-women-owned design firms in New York City in 1984.
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Michael Maltzan
- Occupations
- architect
- Biography
-
Michael Maltzan is the principal architect at Michael Maltzan Architecture, a Los Angeles–based architecture firm. He received a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University and both a Bachelor of Architecture degree and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. Maltzan was selected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2007.
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Timothy White
- Born in
- United States
- Occupations
- photographer
- Biography
-
Timothy White is an American celebrity photographer. He has photographed film actors and music artists, and shot for movie posters, magazine and music album covers. He has directed advertising campaigns and television commercials. He has published books of his photography works.
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Sarah Small
- Occupations
- performing artist
- Biography
-
Sarah Small is a Brooklyn-based American artist, composer, singer, filmmaker, photographer, and performer featured on Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble's GRAMMY-Winning album, Sing Me Home. She is known for her photographic and Tableau Vivant performance series The Delirium Constructions, singing as part of the Balkan vocal trio Black Sea Hotel, acting as the protagonist in the feature film Butter on the Latch by Josephine Decker, and directing the musical album, new music opera performance, and feature film Secondary Dominance.
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Misha Kahn
- Occupations
- designer
- Biography
-
Misha Kahn is an American designer and sculptor, known for assemblage. He incorporates refuse and found objects in his furniture and lighting designs. Kahn's style has been described as "disheveled, spontaneous maximalism".
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David Wiseman
- Occupations
- artist
- Biography
-
David Wiseman is an American artist and designer whose work is known for its detailed craftsmanship and dialogue with traditional filigree decorative arts. His work spans from bronze filigree patterned screens and gates to bronze and terrazzo furniture, and from animal sculptures to porcelain vases.
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Liz Deschenes
- Occupations
- photographerartist
- Biography
-
Liz Deschenes is an American contemporary artist and educator. Her work is situated between sculpture and image and engages with post-conceptual photography and Minimalism. Her work examines the fluidity of the medium of photography and expands on what constitutes the viewing of a photograph. Deschenes has stated that she seeks to "enable the viewer to see the inconstancy of the conditions of display, which are always at play but sometimes hard to see." Her practice is not bound to a single technology, method, process, or subject, but to the fundamental elements of photography, such as light, paper, chemistry, and time.
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Elizabeth Carpenter
- Years
- 1953-.. (age 73)
- Occupations
- fashion designer
- Biography
-
Elizabeth Carpenter is an American writer, fashion designer, maze maker, and board game designer. She lives in New York City where she operates her own business, Mazeology LLP.
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William Woodward
- Occupations
- painter
- Biography
-
William Woodward was a U.S. artist and educator, best known for his impressionist paintings of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of the United States.
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Paul Curreri
- Occupations
- guitaristcomposersinger-songwriter
- Biography
-
Paul Curreri, an American guitarist, pianist, songwriter, and music producer born in Seattle, Washington, and raised in Richmond, Virginia. He performs mainly in the folk and blues music styles. He married songwriter-guitarist Devon Sproule in May 2005 and lived with her in Charlottesville, Virginia. They have appeared and toured together, performing duets – most famously for Valentine's Day. He now produces his wife's tracks, providing supporting instrumentation.
