Rachel Lauren Moss

Rachel Moss is a 2023 graduate of the prestigious Brown | RISD Dual Degree Program, earning an AB in Early Modern Studies from Brown University and BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design, and a recent 2024 graduate of the University of Oxford with a MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture.

From early on, she has been infatuated with history and museums as repositories of the past. This interest has shaped both her artistic and academic narrative, which is steeped in historical context. Her studies have increasingly led her to focus on Early Modern artistic output as a result of religious hegemony and doctrine, specifically concerning Catholic Missionary work within the Colonial Americas and throughout Europe, and on colonial bureaucracy and authority. She views art historical practice as akin to the role of a tour guide, teaching people to see the most intricate of details in the objects they see that would otherwise be overlooked in the passing glance. Where the art historian may see intricate histories of power and control, the viewer sees a figure; where the tour guide sees a town history of centuries, the tourist sees only the facade of the place before being instructed by the guide. This focus on deeper histories revealed in a passing glance translates further in her own art practice — particularly in the mediums of painting, drawing, and printmaking — with the goal of educating an audience as instigation for creation.