She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting in 1998, with an Art History concentration. She was awarded an Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Minnesota in 2003, where she received a Graduate School Fellowship.
Her senior year at RISD was spent in Rome, as a participant in the European Honors Program. In 2005 Rye was a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Rye is represented by Forum Gallery in New York City and Galeria Omar Alonso in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Her work is included in private collections across the country.
She is best known for large scale oil paintings of the ongoing conflict in Iraq. This work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and has been the subject of two major solo exhibitions.
The first, I Will Follow You into the Dark, opened at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2007. This was followed by the 2008 exhibit, Long Night"s Journey Into Day, at the Burnet Gallery, Chambers Hotel.
Upcoming participation in exhibits include ROJO/RED, a 2011 exhibit in Mexico featuring internationally recognized contemporary artists.
A 2011 solo exhibit will also occur in New York City. In addition to gallery exhibits, this body of work has received consistent institutional support. Including fellowships from the Bush Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Rye"s work, particularly the Iraq paintings, has also been the subject of profiles and reviews in print, television, and public radio.
She has become an ongoing journalistic subject for Pulitzer Prize nominated author Marya Hornbacher in essays as well as on the author"s blog.
