About

Born in 1989 in southern California, Rachel Griel moved to St. Louis when she was only two years old. At the age of four she created her first large scale work of art by drawing on her bedsheets when she determined that a simple piece of legal size paper would not suffice for what she had planned. Her parents’ anger upon finding this piece of art did not discourage her, and her dream of making art still lived when her family moved to a small Nebraska town when she was six. However, a kindergarten classmate informed her that “all the famous artists are dead,” and in dismay Rachel abandoned her desire to be an artist for several years. She always enjoyed drawing in her free time, but it was not until she was finally able to take a formal art class in high school that the dream was reignited. “You’re going to do something with art someday,” her teacher said prophetically one afternoon, and it was in that moment that Rachel realized that creating art was her true desire. She studied art for four years at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska, acquiring her BFA in Studio Art in the spring of 2012. In August of that year she moved to Minneapolis, hoping that city life might offer her more opportunities to do similar work, and it did. She spent eight months as an intern at Rosalux Gallery, which exposed her to the world of other, more experienced artists, and was able to participate in her first gallery show as a non-student. In the fall of 2013 she moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she was able to show her work in several local galleries, sell her work in local art festivals, and serve as a member of a panel of artists helping organize shows at Artlink Contemporary Gallery. She now lives in Omaha, Nebraska, where she continues to make art at her home studio.