Ryan Swedenborg MFA ’25

Ryan Swedenborg is a visual artist and designer based in Portland, Maine. Her assemblage sculptures explore the unruly overlap of comedy, failure, and subversion, combining found objects with handmade elements like ceramic, wood, and fabric. Using materials marked by use or discard, she choreographs encounters that feel like performances—unstable, open-ended, and full of tension. Influenced by comedic theory and rooted in assemblage, her work invites interaction and treats sculpture as a collaborative act. Bright construction colors reference caution, repair, and joy. Swedenborg holds an MFA from the Maine College of Art and Design and a BS from Portland State University. She is a recipient of MECA&D’s Above and Beyond Grant and the John and Lone Lee Scholarship at Penland.