Anna Gray +
Ryan Wilson Paulsen
Anna Gray + Ryan Wilson Paulsen are two people who work together as one artistic entity. Together they make 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 translating between text and image and 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 children.
Contact us; we like to get mail.
Selected Exhibitions
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
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, pubic 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
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
2012 Finalists, Contemporary Northwest Art Awards, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Publication
2020 "Open Letter to Ryan Gander" in Art Criticism and Other Short Stories, ed. Helen 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
2019-2020 Instructor, Art + Design, Village Home Education Resource Center, Beaverton, OR
2009-2023 Adjunct Faculty, Portland State University, Portland, 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
2022-23 & 2019 Graduate Mentor, MFA in Visual Studies, Pacific Northwest College of Art, 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