“The machine belongs to memory and a different time
The machine belongs to the house, which still exists and also doesn't exist.”
(fragment)
In the Hollow of the Wave by Nina Mingya Powles
River Forest Berry is an artist, scholar, educator, and curator. She works with fiber processes, installation, and performance. Berry graduated from the Columbus College of Art & Design in 2021 with her BFA in the History of Art & Visual Culture and received her MFA from the University of Michigan in 2026. She recently curated Softer, an exhibition of four emerging, midwestern craft artists at 934 Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. Her own work has been exhibited nationally in spaces such as ROY G BIV Gallery, Albrecht-Kemper Museum, and West Virginia University.
Across her practice, acts of making, quilting, weaving, sewing, and performing become methods of thinking through memory as process rather than fixed record. Repetition, accumulation, and material gesture register time, labor, and care, producing works that function simultaneously as objects and as evolving archival systems. These processes foreground the tension between preservation and loss, where absence is as significant as what remains visible. Memory, in this sense, is not something fully recoverable, but something continually negotiated through material engagement.
Berry’s work ultimately embraces the instability of remembering as generative. By working through gaps, glitches, and partial translations, she creates space for reflection on how personal and collective histories are carried, transformed, and reimagined. Her practice does not seek to resolve memory, but to hold its contradictions—honoring what can be remembered while acknowledging what cannot, and situating care, labor, and material as central to how we make meaning across time.
rforestberry@gmail.com
@r.forestberry
CV
Education
2026 MFA, Penny W Stamps School of Art & Design, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2022 BFA with Distinction, History of Art & Visual Culture concentration in printmaking, Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD), Columbus, OH
2017 Graphic Design coursework, The University of Akron, Akron, OH (non-degree)
Professional Experience
2026- Bentley Historical Library Fellowship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2026- Service Learning Intern, Dr. Kelli Morgan, Black Artists Archive, Detroit, MI
2025- Curatorial Research Assistant (Photography), Jennifer Friess, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
2025- Graduate Student Staff Assistant, Jacquard Weaving Library Assistant, Kit Parks, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2025- Installation Assistant, University of Michigan - Stamps Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
2025 Studio and Archive Assistant, Prof. David Chung, University of Michigan - Stamps Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
2024 Graduate Student Instructor, Penny W Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (Integrative Projects, Fall-Winter 2024-25)
2024 Portfolio Reviewer, National Portfolio Day, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan
2024 Creative Summer Workshops Instructor (CSW), Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus, OH (Textile Design & Block Print (7-9), Fashion Accessories (7-9) [instructor of record], Summer 2024)
2023-24 Print Fellow, Columbus Printed Arts Center, Columbus, OH
2023 Saturday Morning Art Class Instructor (SMAC), Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus, OH (Introduction to Fashion Design [instructor of record], Autumn 2023, Spring 2024)
2023 Studio Assistant, Clay Cafe, Columbus, OH (ceramics)
2022 Restoration & Preservation Crew Member, Blind Eye Architecture & Art Restoration, Columbus, Ohio (wood, glass, metal, bronze)
2021 Gallery Associate, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
2020 Intern, ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus, OH
Awards & Grants
2026 Outstanding Student Award, Surface Design Association
2025 Smucker Wagstaff Grant recipient, Penny W Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2025 Graduate Student Arts Funding Grant (GSARG), Arts Initiative, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2025 Rackham Conference Travel Grant, Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2025 Fully Funded Scholarship, Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists' Residency, Saugatuck, MI
2025 MFA First-Year Exhibition Jury’s Distinction Award, Penny W Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2025 Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia Summer Grants for Research and Internships, University of Michigan, Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia, Ann Arbor, MI
2024 Smucker Wagstaff Grant recipient, Penny W Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2023 Friends of Arrowmont Scholarship recipient, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
2023 Artist Funds Grant recipient, Greater Columbus Arts Council, Columbus, OH
2022 Gertrude Prize for Art History recipient, CCAD, Columbus, OH
2019 Summit Artspace Arts Alive Awards, Emerging Artist Nominee, Akron, OH
Solo Exhibitions
2026 Rest Here, MFA Thesis Exhibition, University of Michigan - Stamps Gallery, Ann Arbor, MI
2024 Solo Exhibition, Adamah Ceramics, Columbus, OH
2022 Tender, Acock Gallery CCAD, Columbus, OH
2021 Family Gathering, BFA Thesis Exhibition, Byers Gallery, CCAD, Columbus, OH
2019 Life Condensed, Up Front Artspace, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Curatorial Experience
2027 Terry Braunstein Exhibition, Curated by Jennifer Friess, Curatorial Assistant, River Berry, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
2026 Art on the Mall, Juried by River Berry, Andy Maticorena Kajie, and Abigail Lowe, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH
2025 Plush, 934 Gallery, Curated by River Berry, artists: Leela Waters, Jess Schwarz, River Berry, & Baylee Schmitt, Columbus, OH
2024 Softer, Sean Christopher Gallery, Curated by River Berry, artists: Leela Waters, Jess Schwarz, River Berry, & Baylee Schmitt, Columbus, OH
2022 Art History Student Collective Exhibition II, CCAD Byers Gallery, Columbus, OH
2022 Art History Student Collective Online Exhibition, CCAD, Columbus, OH
Selected Group Exhibitions & Community Projects
2026 Ceramics x Fiber Collaborative Exhibition, Collaborator: Sara Nishikawa, Organizers: Jessika Edgar and Katie Shulman, Boyer Campbell Building, Detroit, MI
2026 What We Tend, 2026 Graduate Thesis Exhibition, Stamps Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2025 Exuberant Resistance, Wavepool Gallery, curated by Erin Adelman, artists: Josie Love Roebuck, River Berry, & Colleen Merrill, Cincinnati, OH
2025-26 “A Common Thread”, Wayne Center for the Arts (Wooster, OH), Riffe Gallery (Columbus, OH), Carnegie Gallery (Columbus, OH), Ohio Craft Museum (Columbus, OH), Visions Gallery of Textile Art (San Diego, CA), Curated by Caren Petersen and Char Norman
2025 Warped Routes, 1st year MFA Exhibition, Penny W Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2024 “Proximity of Fate”, Mansfield Art Center, Curated by Marquise Stillwell, Mansfield, OH
2024 Ohio Art League (OAL) Spring Juried Exhibition, Upper Arlington Concourse Gallery, Upper Arlington, OH
2024 “Art From the Heartland”, Indy Art Center, Indianapolis, IN
2024 “Heartland”, Dream Clinic Project Space, Curated by Rebecca Arp, Columbus, OH
2023 Between Us, ROY G BIV Gallery, with Isabel Zeng & Margaret Hull, curated by Bryan Christopher Moss, Dana Lynn Harper, Julie Abijanac, Michael Goodson, & Sheri Neale, Columbus, OH
2023 Bazzaarbeque Vol. 10, Kink Contemporary, Cleveland, OH
2023 The Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition, State Fair Grounds, Columbus, OH
2022 Fragile Landscapes of the Body and Mind, ROY G BIV Gallery, curated by Erin Adelman, Columbus, OH
2022 Assembled Identities, Byers Gallery CCAD, Columbus, OH
2022 Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art’s Undergraduate Juried Exhibition, Albrecht-Kemper Museum, St. Joseph, MO
2022 OAL Fall Juried Exhibition, Studio 18, Columbus, OH
2021 The Groundhog Pop Up Art Show, The Warehouse, Portage Lakes, OH
2021 Rise and Pull, held by The Radical Intersectional Printmakers Guild, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
2020-22 CHROMA, CCAD, Columbus, OH
2020-22 Young Hearts, Sean Christopher Gallery, Columbus, OH
2020 Art History Student Collective Exhibition I, CCAD Byers Gallery, Columbus, OH
2020 The Art of Print, Summit Artspace, Akron, OH
2020 Art History Student Collective Mail Art Project, United States
2019 Fresh Perspectives, Summit Artspace, Akron, OH
2019 Grand, Up Front Art Space, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
2019 Arts Alive Art Auction, Summit Artspace, Akron, OH
2019 Summit Artspace Stairwell Mural, Summit Artspace, Akron, OH
2018 Defining Landscapes, Summit Artspace, Akron, OH
2018 Parallax Contemporary, Summit Artspace, Akron, OH
Presentations & Publications
River Forest Berry, Rest Here: Archival Practices in Fiber, Performance, and Place, MFA Thesis Talks, Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI
River Forest Berry, Rest Here, Artist Book, Ann Arbor, MI, March 2026.
River Forest Berry, “A New Web 3.0: Transparency and Creative Solidarity” on the internet, everyone knows you’re a ____. Edited by Angela Washko, Ann Arbor MI, May 2025
Taylor Durell, “Stitches”, 614 Magazine, Columbus, OH, May 2023.
Cadmium Red, Art Collaboration and Interview with Bryn Reagan, Columbus, OH, August 18, 2023.
Cadmium Red Live Stream and interview, Columbus, OH, July 2023.
“Crafting Identity: Contemporary Crafts through Feminist Lenses,” CCAD Chroma Art History Symposium, Columbus, OH, April 2022.
“Crafting Identity: Contemporary Crafts through Feminist Lenses”, Southern University of New York Undergraduate Art History Symposium, New Paltz, NY, March 2022.
River Berry, “Family Gathering”, BFA thesis publication, March 2022.
Organizations
2026- Surface Design Association, Member
2021 ROY G BIV Gallery, Member
2020- The Radical Intersectional Printmakers Guild, Member
2019-22 Founding Member + President, Art History Student Collective (CCAD), Columbus, OH