about

Anna Gray + Ryan Wilson Paulsen are two people who work together as one artistic entity. They tend towards project-based work, using art as an extended form of study and a testing ground for ideas about language, politics and social life. Their projects are often grounded in play and in translating between text and image, expanding the individual act of reading into visual, collective form.

Their work has appeared in many public places as well as at institutions such as The Renaissance Society (Chicago, IL); The San Diego Museum of Art (San Diego, CA); SPACES (Cleveland, OH); Locust Projects (Miami, FL); Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (Portland, OR); and on the pages of NOON Literary Annual. In addition to teaching, they enjoy working on the land where they live and spending time with their two children. The pair is represented by PDX Contemporary Art.

PO Box 5221

Portland, OR 97208

ryannaprojects[at]gmail[dot]com

@ryannaprojects on Instagram

Selected Exhibitions

2023 missives, Converge 45, various locations, Portland, OR

2022 sandwiches for every meal, PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR*

2021 hard & SOFT, Congress Yard Projects, Portland, OR

2020 [IN]finite, Archer Gallery, Vancouver, WA**

2018 the book is a body that bends, PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR*

2018 Between the Beginning and the Middle, Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR*
2016 PDX to PTD, Pendelton, OR
2016 Dreams Are My Reality, D21 Kunstraum, Leipzig, Germany
2016 Structures & Feelings, Disjecta Center for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR**
2016 Hidden Assembly, SPACES, Cleveland, OH
2016 Empathy Affect, Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, OR
2016 Matched Makers, Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA
2014 Teen Paranormal Romance, Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL & Atlanta, GA
2013 Now Read This, Boise State University, Boise, ID
2013 A Series of Rectangles, PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR*
2012 P.O.’d Postcard Show, Marylhurst Art Gym, Portland, OR
2012 Maybe It Takes A Loud Noise, PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR*
2012 Portland2012, A Biennial of Contemporary Art, Disjecta, Portland, OR
2012 The 10th NW Biennial, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
2011 Commonplacing, Napolean, Philadelphia, PA
2011 Reading.Writing., Gallery Homeland, Portland, OR
2011 Being There, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA
2010 Txt : Artists Investigating Language, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, WA
2010 Public Antagonism, Carhole Gallery, Portland, OR
2010 The Classroom, PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR*
2010 A Limited Anthology of Edits, AB Lobby Gallery, Portland, OR*
2010 How to Read a Book, Locust Projects, Miami, FL
2010 Of Walking in Ice, The White Box, Portland, OR
2010 The Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things, The Art Gym, Marylhurst, OR**
2009 09 Writings & Observations, Botkyrka Konsthall, Tumba, Sweden
2009 Index of Left Behind, Apartment Gallery at the Teshnor Manor, Portland, OR

* solo exhibitions** two-artist exhibitions

Special Projects + Participation

2024 Portland Monuments Symposium, panel discussion, Portland, OR

2022-2024 bending library, collaborative artist book publishing project

2024 Will you with me?, performer, project by Claire Barrera, Performance Works NW, Portland, OR

2018 History of Agriculture, participatory workshop and project, Five Oaks Museum, OR

2017 Kids’ Table, event and book release, Pataphysical Society, Portland, OR

2015 Takerlab, public reading group series, with IT-503 study group, Portland, OR

2014 Spreading Rumors, public projects, with Garrick Imatani & Ariana Jacob

2013 Instead of Pleading Up, Research event & presentation, Camp CARPA, Joshua Tree, CA

2012 Don’t Mistake Our Intelligence for Knowledge, research event & presentation, San Diego

Museum of Art, San Diego, CA

2011 Don’t Worry We’ll Fix It, installation, performance, and publication, PICA’s TBA Festival,

Portland, OR

2010 The Classroom Lecture Series, public lecture series and publication, Portland, OR

2007 I’m Searching Too, postcard project, PICA’s TBA Festival, Portland, OR

Awards, Grants, and Residences

2022 Project Grant Recipients, Regional Arts and Culture Council, Portland, OR

2019 Artists in Residence, Caldera Arts, Sisters, OR

2016 Artists in Residence, Schneider Museum of Art, Ashland, OR

2015 Golden Spot Artists in Residence, Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland, OR

2015 Signal Fire Artists in Residence, Mt. Hood Wilderness, OR

2014 PICA's Precipice Fund Grant recipients (with Ariana Jacob and Garrick Imatani), Portland, OR

2014 Individual Artist Fellowship recipients, Oregon Arts Commission, Salem, OR

2013 Artists in Residence, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE

2013 Project Grant Recipients, Reagional Arts and Culture Council, Portland, OR

2012 Finalists, Contemporary Northwest Art Awards, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR

Publication

2024 Monuments Workbook, Ed. Jess Perlitz & Mack McFarland, Converge 45, Portland, OR

2020 “Open Letter to Ryan Gander" in Art Criticism and Other Short Stories, ed. Reed H. Reed, Vancouver BC

2019 Contributions to Annotated Reader, a project by Ryan Gander and Jonathon Watts, London, UK

2018 First 100 Days published by Iron Point Press, Tucson, Arizona

2017 On Time edited by Sarah Farahat and Erica Thomas, Portland, OR

2017 Cleaning and the Possibility of Communism, published by Special Projects Press, Portland, OR

2015 Up With Toys, published by Recess Gallery and Signal Fire, Portland, OR

2014 "No Vacancy" published for April PDF by Amur Initiatives

2014 The Riso Book, a traveling book project, Colpa Press, San Francisco, CA

2014 "100 Posterworks" in Value/Labor/Arts: A Primer, published by Art Practical, San Francisco, CA

2013 "You Have Drones.We Have Stones" published as part of Murmuration: A Festival of Drone Culture

2013 100 Posterworks, limited-edition poster set, self-published, Portland, OR

2012 "Dear W." in Weekday 3, published by Publication Studio, Portland, OR and New York, NY

2012 A Glass of Milk Has More Than Two Parts, published by the Phillip Feldman Gallery, Portland, OR

2011 Selections from "100 Posterworks" in NOON Literary Annual, ed. Diane Williams, New York, NY

2010 A Classroom Reader, published by Publication Studio, Portland, OR

2010 Introduction to Template Files: Works by D.E. May, published by Publication Studio, Portland, OR

2010 A Limited Anthology of Edits, published by Special Projects Press, Portland, OR

2010 Selections from "100 Posterworks" in Urban Interventions, Gestalten Publishing, Berlin, Germany

2008 One-Way Street: An Index in Thirteen Parts, published by Special Projects Press and Ubu Web

Teaching

2009-24 Adjunct Faculty, School of Art & Design, Portland State University, Portland, OR

2022-24 Adjunct Faculty, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR

2022-24 Graduate Mentor, MFA in Visual Studies, Pacific Northwest College of Art,

Portland, OR

2019-20 Instructor, Village Home Education Resource Center, Beaverton, OR

2017 Artist-in-Residence Mentor, Union for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE

2016 Graduate Mentor, MFA in Craft, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Portland, OR

2015 Adjunct Faculty, MA in CT+CR, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR

2013 Adjunct Faculty in Sculpture, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR

Education

2010 Master of Fine Arts, Portland State University, Portland, OR
2008 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR