Home Artist Programs Supported Artists Rachel Parish

Rachel Parish

Atlanta, Georgia

A round opening is woven with intertwined twigs and branches in River Portal, Perkerson Park. The portal spans the space between the ends of two bent, slightly rusted green fences that line wood boardwalks to each side. A creek and lush trees fill the space beyond.

River Portal, Perkerson Park (from Atlanta to the Atlantic) 2024

2026

This still from a performance piece titled Emergence: Water tender and Intrenchment Creek Monument, shows a dancer leaning forward onto a wooden box containing moss, stones, and tree bark. The bark stands up like campfire flames. The person wears blue and lifts one leg high behind her as she gazes at the box, which is set in a lush park enclosed by white buildings.

Emergence: Water tender and Intrenchment Creek Monument

2022

This sculpture, titled It Could Be, resembles solidifying molten silver. Roughly the shape of a loaf of bread, the surface dips and bulges, and a hood-like shape rises up one long side.

It Could Be

2022

Four images show iterations of the work titled self portraits in bloom in bloom and decay (from Bodies of Bois Mallet). In each image, live or dried plants fill wobbly or tipsy white plant pots, some tall and shallow, some squat.

self portraits in bloom and decay (from Bodies of Bois Mallet)

2021

Artworks shown are selected from works submitted by the artist in their grant or residency application. All works are copyright of the artist or artist’s estate.

About Rachel Parish

Rachel Parish smiles out at us as she sits on a concrete floor with her arms wrapped around her bent knees. She has long brown hair and wears a dark green sweater and blue pants. Three white panels that fill the space behind her are crossed with writing or writing-like lines.

Rachel Parish is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist working internationally at the intersection of visual art, performance, and civic engagement. Based in Atlanta, she has also lived and worked in London, Oakland, and New York. Her work invites unexpected collaborators—including artists, police negotiators, historians, mothers, children, and plants—into improvisational frameworks that foster personal and communal transformation. She creates installations, rituals, performances, and public works rooted in listening, storytelling, and co-creation. Her projects have been presented at Tate Britain, the DeYoung Museum, Alliance Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith, and Standpoint Gallery, as well as in community centers, streets, and schools. Rachel has received over twenty grants and awards and held residencies with Duke University, Art on the Atlanta BeltLine, and Vlerick Business School in Belgium. She holds an MFA from California College of the Arts and an MA in Practice-Based Research from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Program Participation

Joan Mitchell Center Residency, 2026

Website / Social Links

“ I use interdisciplinary methods to examine how histories live in bodies, land, and objects, especially those histories that have been marginalized or obscured. Through sculptural installations, participatory rituals, and site-responsive work, I explore the ways ancestral memory, domestic labor, and ecological stewardship intersect.”