List of Rhode Island School of Design people

Notable alumni

Academia

• Rebecca Allen — Pioneer of early computer art, installation art, interface design, professor and chair for the UCLA Design Media Arts
• Ricky Allman — Painter, professor
• Deborah Berke — Dean and Professor at Yale School of Architecture
• Andrianna Campbell – Art historian
• Preston Scott Cohen — Architect; Director of the Architecture degree program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
• Nader Tehrani — Dean, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union, professor and head of the Department of Architecture, MIT ; principal and founder of NADAAA

  Business

• Brian Chesky — Entrepreneur, CEO of Airbnb
• Joe Gebbia — Entrepreneur, CPO of Airbnb

  Politics

• Samuel Azzinaro — Member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives
• John Cebrowski — Member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives

  Architecture

• Deborah Berke — Dean of Yale School of Architecture; Principal of Deborah Berke Partners.
• Preston Scott Cohen — Gerald M. McCue Professor in Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design ; Principal of Preston Scott Cohen, Inc.
• Michael Gabellini — Architect and interior designer, teacher at the Parsons School of Design
• Glenn Gissler — Architect
• Adam Charlap Hyman - Architect, designer, and artist
• Mary Richardson Kennedy — Architect and interior designer
• Richard Levine — Professor, green architect, and sustainability pioneer
• Michael Maltzan — Principal and founder of Michael Maltzan Architecture
• Sam Posey — New England car racer, painter and architect.
• Ira Rakatansky — Providence-based architect
• Nader Tehrani — Dean, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union, professor and head of the Department of Architecture, MIT ; principal and founder of NADAAA

  Fine Art

Art collectives

Forcefield

• Jim Drain — Artist
• Matt Brinkman — Artist
• Ara Peterson — Artist

  Art collectors and art dealers

• Mary Boone — Owner of Mary Boone Gallery
• David Whitney — art collector and curator; longtime companion of architect Philip Johnson

  Digital arts

• Rebecca Allen — Pioneer of early computer art, installation art, interface design, and professor

  MacArthur Fellowships

• Janine Antoni — Artist, 1998 MacArthur Fellow
• James Carpenter — Glass sculptor, designer, 2004 MacArthur Fellow
• Nicole Eisenman — Painter, 2015 MacArthur Fellow
• David Macaulay — Writer, illustrator, 2006 MacArthur Fellow
• Josiah McElheny — Artist, sculptor, 2006 MacArthur Fellow
• Julie Mehretu — Artist, 2005 MacArthur Fellow
• Anna Schuleit — Artist, 2006 MacArthur Fellow
• Shazia Sikander — Artist, MacArthur Fellow
• Kara Walker — Artist, 1997 MacArthur Fellow

  Multimedia, mixed media and installation

• Romeo Alaeff — Artist, author, animation/film editor
• Janine Antoni — Artist
• Nicole Bartelme — Artist, film festival creator
• Ib Benoh — Artist
• Sarah Bostwick — Artist
• Brian Bress — Artist
• Dan Colen — NYC-based artist
• Cheryl Donegan — Contemporary artist
• Jim Drain — Artist, often makes work collaboratively
• Benjamin Edwards — Artist
• Shepard Fairey — Street artist, graphic designer, activist and illustrator
• Lauren Geremia — Interior designer
• Jenny Holzer — Installation artist
• Roni Horn — Artist
• Elliott Hundley — Artist
• James Jaxxa — Multimedia artist
• David Kracov — Sculptor, painter, and animator
• Mike Libby — Artist
• Mary Curtis Ratcliff — Artist
• Marcus Reichert — Artist
• Mark Shasha — Artist
• Shahzia Sikander — Artist
• Phillip K. Smith III — Artist
• Tavares Strachan — Artist
• Do-Ho Suh — Artist
• Susan Thayer — Ceramic artist
• Ryan Trecartin — Artist
• Katie Vida — Interdisciplinary artist and curator
• Kara Walker — Artist
• Andrea Zittel — Artist
• Kevin Zucker — Artist

  Painting

• Daniel Arango — Painter, visual artist
• David Bowes — Painter
• Erin Castellan — Painter
• John Dilg — Painter
• Arthur S. Douglas — Member of the inaugural class; student teacher
• Nicole Eisenman — Painter
• Herbert Cyrus Farnum — 19th- and early 20th-century painter in Rhode Island.
• Aaron Gilbert — Painter
• Suzy González — Painter.
• Bruce Helander — Painter, collage and assemblage
• Jessica Hess – Realist painter
• Håvard Homstvedt — Painter
• Julie Mehretu — Artist, densely layered prints and paintings
• Richard Merkin — Painter, The New Yorker contributor, Prof. Emeritus RISD
• Laura Owens — Painter
• Sam Posey — New England car racer, painter and architect
• Deborah Poynton — Realism painter, attended RISD for two years in 1987—1989 but did not graduate.
• Francis Quirk — Painter
• Sonya Sklaroff — Artist, painter
• Anne Morgan Spalter — New media artist
• Andrew Stevovich — Artist
• Taravat Talepasand — Iranian-American artist
• Kurt Wenner — Anamorphic street painter
• Mabel May Woodward — Impressionist
• Zio Ziegler — Muralist and painter

  Photography

• David Akiba — Photographer and teacher in the Boston area
• Lukas Birk — Photographer, author, archivist.
• Bill Burke – Documentary photographer.
• Linda Connor — Large-format photographer, currently teaches at the San Francisco Art Institute
• Jim Dow — Photographer
• Odette England — Photographer, curator, writer, currently teaches at Rhode Island School of Design
• Emmet Gowin — Photographer
• Jill Greenberg — Photographer
• Kathy Grove — Photographer
• Henry Horenstein — Photographer, author, currently teaches at Rhode Island School of Design
• Deana Lawson — Photographer, currently teaches at Princeton
• Leigh Ledare — Photographer
• Laura McPhee — Photographer and teacher at Massachusetts College of Art
• David Benjamin Sherry — landscape photographer
• Timothy White — Celebrity photographer
• Francesca Woodman — Photographer

  Printmaking

• Val Britton — Artist, works on paper and installations
• Brian Chippendale — Musician with Lightning Bolt, graphic artist, poster artist
• Arthur Deshaies — Artist, printmaker
• Helen C. Frederick – artist, printmaker
• Jane Kim — Scientific illustrations and murals promoting advocacy of the natural world.
• Sonia Romero — Printmaking, murals and public art in Los Angeles
• Pippi Zornoza — Poster artist and co-founder of the Dirt Palace feminist artist collective.

  Sculpture

• Janine Antoni — Studied sculpture, known for using her body as a creative instrument and site of meaning in works that blend performance, sculpture, video and photography
• Howard Ben Tré — Glass sculptor
• John Benson — Studied sculpture, known for stone carving and typeface design
• Huma Bhabha — Sculptor in New York
• Karen LaMonte — Glass sculptor, known for representations of women’s dresses with the wearer absent
• Ross Palmer Beecher — Studied sculpture, known for art from recycled and found objects

  Fashion

• Diana Eng — Fashion designer; contestant on Project Runway
• Katie Gallagher — Fashion designer
• Robert Geller — Fashion designer; recipient of the GQ/CFDA Best New Menswear Designer Award 2009
• Mary Katrantzou — Fashion designer
• Nicole Miller — Fashion designer
• Ryan Jude Novelline — Contemporary artist; fashion designer
• Jill Stuart — Fashion designer

  Film and television

• Ilene Chaiken — Co-creator of The L Word, adapted The Handmaid's Tale for television, show-runner Empire
• Ben Coccio — Director of Zero Day
• Martha Coolidge — Director, Valley Girl, Real Genius, The Prince and Me, Material Girls
• Michael Dante DiMartino — Co-creator and executive producer,
• Dan Golden — filmmaker, composer of Oscar-nominated film Feral
• Heather Henson — puppeteer and owner of IBEX Puppetry, sits on the board for The Jim Henson Company
• Christy Karacas — animator, musician, co-creator of Superjail!
• Bryan Konietzko — Co-creator and executive producer, , Invader Zim, and Family Guy
• Ellen Kuras — Cinematographer
• Mary Lambert — Director, Pet Sematary, The in Crowd
• Seth MacFarlane — Filmmaker, actor, animator, comedian, and singer; creator of Family Guy, American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, The Orville, and writer-director of Ted and Ted 2.
• Joanna Priestley — Animator
• Robert Richardson — Academy Award-winning cinematographer
• Mark Shasha — Artist, author, illustrator, actor
• Leah Shore — Animator, film director, known for multiple award-winning short films Old Man and I Love You So Much
• Daniel Sousa — Animator, director of Oscar-nominated film Feral
• Helen Stickler — Director
• Charles Stone III — Director, Drumline ; creator of "Whassup?" Anheuser-Busch Budweiser commercial campaign
• Gus Van Sant — Director, My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester, Elephant Last Days, Milk
• Todd Verow — Director

  Actors

• James Franco — Actor, artist
• Sam Hyde — Actor, writer, comedian and co-creator of
• Jemima Kirke — Artist, actor, TV show Girls
• Martin Mull — Actor, comedian, painter
• Ben Powers — Actor in the CBS sitcom Good Times
• Charles Rocket — Former Saturday Night Live cast member; actor

  Furniture design

• Amy Devers — Furniture designer; television personality
• Judy Kensley McKie — Furniture designer
• Brodie Neill — Furniture designer
• Josh Owen — Furniture designer
• Emi Ozawa — Artist
• Matthias Pliessnig — Furniture designer
• Misha Kahn — Artist
• Charles Tsunashima — Furniture designer, Tama Arts University faculty
• Janice Smith — Furniture designer
• Rosanne Somerson — Furniture designer; RISD professor, Furniture Design department head, Provost, and RISD President from 2015–present

  Glass

• Martin Blank — Glass artist
• Dale Chihuly — Glass artist; founder of glass art program at the Rhode Island School of Design; co-founder of Pilchuck Glass School
• Katherine Gray — Glass artist
• Paul Housberg — Fused and kiln-formed glass artist
• Mary Shaffer — Glass artist
• Therman Statom — Glass artist

  Graphic design

• Tobias Frere-Jones — Type designer
• Tom Geismar — Identity designer and corporate identity pioneer; designed marks for NBC, Mobil, Chase, Xerox, and MoMA
• Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland — Graphic Design studies for one year
• Michael H. Riley — Emmy Award-nominated designer and founder of design company Shine
• Michael Rock — Co-founder and partner of 2x4; Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award recipient
• Jessica Walsh — Founder of creative agency & Walsh, former partner at Sagmeister & Walsh studio; Art Directors Club "Young Gun"

  Illustration

• Roz Chast — Cartoonist
• Elizabeth Updike Cobblah, — Illustrator and teacher, daughter of John Updike
• Emiko Davies – Illustrations, food writer and food journalist.
• Christopher Denise — Illustrator of children's books, including many in the Redwall series
• Shepard Fairey — Street artist, graphic designer
• Jon Foster — Illustrator
• Steven Kellogg — Children's book illustrator
• Bryan Konietzko — Co-creator and executive producer, animated series
• Sonny Liew — Comic book writer, artist
• Grace Lin — Writer, illustrator
• Fred Lynch — Journalistic illustrator
• David Macaulay — Writer, illustrator, 2006 MacArthur Fellow
• David Mazzucchelli — Comic artist and author of Asterios Polyp
• Kelly Murphy — Writer, illustrator
• Antoine Revoy — Writer, illustrator
• Paolo Rivera — Comic book artist
• Brian Selznick — Writer, illustrator
• Mark Shasha — Writer, illustrator
• Walt Simonson — Comic book writer, artist
• Chris Van Allsburg — Children's book illustrator, Caldecott winner
• David Wiesner — Illustrator, Caldecott winner

  Industrial Design

• David Hanson — Robotics designer of Sophia
• Stuart Karten — Industrial designer and founder of KartenDesign
• Charles Tsunashima — Industrial designer, Tama Arts University faculty

  Literature

• Charlotte Perkins Gilman — author of The Yellow Wallpaper; feminist
• Kenneth Goldsmith — poet, WFMU DJ, founding editor of UbuWeb
• Manjushree Thapa — Writer, Forget Kathmandu, Tilled Earth, Tutor Of History

  Music

• Oliver Ackermann — musician, A Place to Bury Strangers
• Paul Curreri — songwriter / guitarist / producer
• Chris Keating — musician, Yeasayer
• Justin Lo — Hong Kong singer, composer and record producer
• Marissa Nadler — singer-songwriter
• Heather Nova — singer-songwriter
• Jesse Sykes — singer-songwriter
• Veronica Vasicka — DJ, radio show host, producer and owner of Minimal Wave Records

  Musical bands

Black Dice – Formed in 1997

• Hisham Bharoocha — Artist and musician, former member of Black Dice and Lightning Bolt
• Sebastian Blanck — Artist and musician, former member of Black Dice

  Fang Island – Formed in 2005

Les Savy Fav – Formed in 1995

• Tim Harrington
• Syd Butler

  Lightning Bolt – Formed in 1994

• Hisham Bharoocha — Artist and musician, former member of Black Dice and Lightning Bolt
• Brian Chippendale — Artist, founded Fort Thunder
• Brian Gibson — Artist
• Rubber Rodeo — band formed in 1980

  Talking Heads – Formed in 1974

• David Byrne
• Chris Frantz
• Tina Weymouth

  Textiles

• Cynthia Schira — textile artist known for adding relief and irregularity to weavings made on a Jacquard loom
• Ruth Adler Schnee — a founding figure of contemporary textile design in America and best known for her modern prints and abstract-patterns of organic and geometric forms.

  Notable current and past faculty

Fine Arts Division

Ceramics

• Otto and Vivika Heino — ceramics

  Film/animation/video

• Janet Perlman — animator, Oscar nominee for The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin
• Steven Subotnick — professor in animation
• Yvonne Andersen — professor in animation, department head

  Illustration

• Fred Lynch — journalistic illustrator
• David Macaulay — Illustrator and author
• Barry Moser — Illustrator
• Kelly Murphy — Illustrator and author, E.B. White Award winner for Masterpiece
• Chris Van Allsburg — children's book author/illustrator, Caldecott winner for Jumanji and The Polar Express
• Lars Grant-West — Illustrator for Wizards of the Coast

  Jewelry and metalsmithing

• John Prip — silver design

  Painting

• Richard Merkin — Professor Emeritus, painter
• Duane Slick — painting faculty since 1995
• George William Whitaker — first instructor of oil painting
• Mabel May Woodward — painting faculty for over 20 years; during the early 20th century introduced the "action class," in which students studied the human figure as a machine rather than as a stationary object

  Photography

• Diane Arbus — Photographer
• Harry Callahan — Photographer, former Chair of the Department of Photography
• Joe Deal – photographer, Professor Emeritus, former Provost
• Ann Fessler — author, filmmaker, installation artist, former Department Head and Graduate Program Director
• Henry Horenstein — Photographer
• Aaron Siskind — abstract expressionist photographer who, with Callahan, founded the photography department at RISD

  Printmaking

• Andrew Raftery — engraver; has taught in the printmaking and painting department since 1991
• Brian Shure — master printmaker, realist painter, teaching from 1996 to 2016
• Carol Wax — printmaker, visiting artist and faculty in the printmaking department

  Architecture and Design Division

Architecture

• Thomas Bosworth — former Chair of Department of Architecture; Seattle architect; Professor Emeritus University of Washington
• Norman Isham — Rhode Island historical architect
• Friedrich St. Florian — architect, designer of National World War II Memorial
• Monica Ponce de Leon — architect, designer of the Fleet Library

  Furniture design

• Tage Frid — RISD professor of Woodworking and Furniture design from 1962 until 1985 also connected to the industrial design program.
• Jens Risom — Furniture design

  Graphic design

• John Howard Benson — Calligraphy, design theory, sculpture
• Malcolm Grear — Professor Emeritus, graphic designer
• Mihai Nadin — theorist, semiotics, computational design, HCI
• Ootje Oxenaar — Dutch graphic designer, designer of acclaimed but now vanished Dutch currency
• Michael Rock — graphic designer; writer; design professor at Yale University MFA graphic design program
• Nancy Skolos — graphic designer, co-founder of Skolos-Wedell studios, teaching at RISD since 1989
• Paul Soulellis — American graphic designer, artist, publisher and teacher; founder of Library of the Printed Web

  Industrial design

• Marc Harrison — industrial designer and pioneer of universal design and RISD professor of industrial design until his death in 1998
• Victor Papanek — designer and early pioneer of universal design

  Experimental and Foundation Studies Division

• Mark Milloff — Painter, foundations faculty

  Liberal Arts Division

• Mairéad Byrne — poet
• Jhumpa Lahiri — creative writing, author of the novel The Namesake