Gili Rappaport
- Interdisciplinary 2026
Gili Rappaport (they/them) is a New York-born artist, writer, educator, and naturalist, raised between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers.
Their interdisciplinary practice explores the connections between movement, ecology, and socially engaged art, often through site-responsive projects and environmental storytelling. With a background in American social-political movements and a deep connection to land-based inquiry developed through an apprenticeship with naturalist Laura Chávez Silverman, Gili’s work fosters reciprocal relationships between people and place.
A recipient of an MFA in Contemporary Art Practice: Art & Social Practice from Portland State University (’24), their work has been exhibited at The Front Room at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Content 2024 at The Society Hotel, the Arlene Schnitzer Prize Exhibition at The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU, and Subject: at Umpqua Valley Arts, the Chehalem Cultural Center, Pendleton Center for the Arts, and the Newport Visual Art Center among others. Their publications include They Call Me The Mayor at Riis Beach: Ralph’s Beach Parties 1994—2000 (Anthology Editions) and Field Guide to the Northeast Volumes I—III (The Outside Institute). Gili is also the founder and artistic director of green flash projects, a press devoted to queer artistry and environmental storytelling. They have led movement and research-based courses, including the inaugural Spring 2025 Amber Hollibaugh Seminar in the City, co-sponsored by CLAGS at CUNY and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. In 2025, Gili will open their first solo show at the Multnomah Art Center in partnership with Urban Forestry at Portland Parks & Rec, supported by RACC’s Portland Arts Project Grant. King School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA), PSU Special Collections and University Archives, and The CLAGS Research Archive at the Mina Rees Library at the CUNY Graduate Center hold their work in public collections.
Queer, nonbinary, and of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, Gili resides in Portland, Oregon, where they collaborate on site-responsive projects and research the bonds between making art and caring for the land.
A recipient of an MFA in Contemporary Art Practice: Art & Social Practice from Portland State University (’24), their work has been exhibited at The Front Room at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Content 2024 at The Society Hotel, the Arlene Schnitzer Prize Exhibition at The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU, and Subject: at Umpqua Valley Arts, the Chehalem Cultural Center, Pendleton Center for the Arts, and the Newport Visual Art Center among others. Their publications include They Call Me The Mayor at Riis Beach: Ralph’s Beach Parties 1994—2000 (Anthology Editions) and Field Guide to the Northeast Volumes I—III (The Outside Institute). Gili is also the founder and artistic director of green flash projects, a press devoted to queer artistry and environmental storytelling. They have led movement and research-based courses, including the inaugural Spring 2025 Amber Hollibaugh Seminar in the City, co-sponsored by CLAGS at CUNY and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. In 2025, Gili will open their first solo show at the Multnomah Art Center in partnership with Urban Forestry at Portland Parks & Rec, supported by RACC’s Portland Arts Project Grant. King School Museum of Contemporary Art (KSMoCA), PSU Special Collections and University Archives, and The CLAGS Research Archive at the Mina Rees Library at the CUNY Graduate Center hold their work in public collections.
Queer, nonbinary, and of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, Gili resides in Portland, Oregon, where they collaborate on site-responsive projects and research the bonds between making art and caring for the land.