Biography
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Carly “Car” Riegger is a chronically ill and disabled artist, writer, curator, and advocate from Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. They utilize porcelain and installation artworks to express inner feelings and narratives of disability. Riegger has organized several important exhibitions for artists with disabilities through the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) including #CripClay in Cincinnati, OH in 2023, and Outpour in Detroit, MI in 2026. Riegger is also the recipient of the 2024 Midwest Artists with Disabilities Award. They hold an MA in Disability Studies from The City University of New York and are currently pursuing an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Both Riegger’s artwork and career goals involve disability inclusion and rights. They are working to expand how the arts communities work with artists with disabilities and how disability communities utilize art to express complex disabled ideas.
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Artist Statement
My work is a direct response to my life with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), an inherited disorder that causes pain in the connective tissues throughout the body. My work seeks to search for comfort in a world not accommodating of disability. I create work that documents my body, a mix of visceral internal with uncomfortable external using universally human modes of expression, like the breath.
I use various materials to convey the tenuous state of an ill body and its reflection of its universality. I use the sensitive and reactive qualities of porcelain to materially explore what it is like to work with a body that refuses to cooperate. Through each stage, from building with wet clay and releasing from the mold to firing in the kiln and installation, I gently care for each body. I remain firm in caring for it, no matter what failure it faces. The body casts stage a formal conversation with the history of medical casts that prop the body. As I work with the casts, I ruminate on the individual and their experience with disability that they’ve described. I’ve used a mix of my own body and others throughout my sculptures, but as it is all filtered myself, it is both individualistic while also speaking to the broader chronically ill and disabled experiences.
My video work uses my own body to perform the difficulty of living with disability in a disability-phobic social system. With many inaccurate and ableist historical and societal interpretations of the disabled body, I choose to speak about my own experience as a reclamation of my identity. My work continues to express the disabled body through my disabled lens as a gesture toward a comfort that we all seek.
I use various materials to convey the tenuous state of an ill body and its reflection of its universality. I use the sensitive and reactive qualities of porcelain to materially explore what it is like to work with a body that refuses to cooperate. Through each stage, from building with wet clay and releasing from the mold to firing in the kiln and installation, I gently care for each body. I remain firm in caring for it, no matter what failure it faces. The body casts stage a formal conversation with the history of medical casts that prop the body. As I work with the casts, I ruminate on the individual and their experience with disability that they’ve described. I’ve used a mix of my own body and others throughout my sculptures, but as it is all filtered myself, it is both individualistic while also speaking to the broader chronically ill and disabled experiences.
My video work uses my own body to perform the difficulty of living with disability in a disability-phobic social system. With many inaccurate and ableist historical and societal interpretations of the disabled body, I choose to speak about my own experience as a reclamation of my identity. My work continues to express the disabled body through my disabled lens as a gesture toward a comfort that we all seek.
Education
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2026
2023
2023
2020
2018
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University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI The City University of New York
Indiana University Southeast
New Albany, IN Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH Studio Arts College International
Florence, Italy |
Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art
Master of Arts in Disability Studies
Post-Baccalaureate in Ceramics
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art
Fall Semester Abroad
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Organizations
Disability and Access Coalition Club at CUNY
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The Dirt Bags Ceramics Club at IUS
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Publications
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2025
2023
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Uncontained: Crip Resistance through Sculpture
Crip Resistance: Holding Space, Building Community Resting Up Collective, Ort Gallery, and Birmingham Resistance Library Birmingham, UK #CripClay, NCECA Journal Article
Co-Authored with Victoria Walton, Amanda Barr, and Cecily Whitwort |
Exhibitions, Shows & Professional Experience
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2025
2025
2025
2025
2025
2025
2025
2024
2024
2024
2024
2024
2023
2023
2023
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
2022
2021
2021
2021
2021
2020
2020
2020
2020
2018
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Disability in STEM Symposium, UW-Madison
Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, Madison, WI Exquisite Beings, Ceramics Graduate Exhibition
Backspace Gallery, Art Lofts, Madison, WI Queer Madison Biennial, Curated by Kean O'Brien and Bo Owen
Commonwealth Gallery, Madison, WI Embodying Feminism: Calling In, Calling Out, Calling to Action
Women’s and Gender Studies Consortium Conference, UW-Madison, Madison, WI Disabled Artist Symposium
Illinois State University, Normal, IL Uncontained
MFA Qualifier Exhibition (2nd Year Review), UW-Madison, Madison, WI Ableism Interrupted
Awareness Panel at UW-Madison, Madison, WI Sound Mind / Sound Body, Disabled Artist Exhibition
Commonwealth Gallery, Madison, WI Radial Point, Group Exhibition, 2nd-Year MFA Students
Backspace Gallery, Art Lofts, Madison, WI Golem Girl: Riva Lehrer Artist Talk
Disability in Art Discussion with Riva Lehrer, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI Internal Index, MFA Ceramic Student Exhibition
Main Gallery, Art Lofts, Madison, WI As Much As Humanly Possible, MFA First-Year Student Exhibition
Main Gallery, Art Lofts, Madison, WI Transmogrify, MFA Ceramic Student Exhibition
Main Gallery, Art Lofts, Madison, WI #CripClay, Concurrent Exhibition
Co-Organizers: Victoria Walton and Amanda Barr 57th Annual NCECA Conference, Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, OH #CripClay: Taking Initative for Accessibility
Presentation Panel at 57th Annual NCECA Conference, Cincinnati, OH All In: Expanding Our Disability Advocacy, Common Experience
Disability Panel at Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN Annual Juried Fine Arts Student Exhibition
Juror: Kat Cox, Ronald L. Barr Gallery, IUS, New Albany, IN Ephemera, Group Exhibition with Molly Otremba
Art Alliance of Southern Indiana, New Albany, IN Bodies: Celebrating All Bodies, Online Exhibition
The Ikouii Creative Organization, Curated by Aleatha Linsay Inside Their Studio: Deaf & Disabled Artists Reshaping the Arts
The Ikouii Creative Organization, Curated by Aleatha Linsay Published Book featuring my artwork Annual Juried Fine Arts Student Exhibition
Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN IUS Printmaking Showcase
Carnegie Art Museum, New Albany, IN Bed Zine, Issue Two
A Collection of Artwork by Disabled Artists and Their Beds Press Pause. IUS Ceramics Exhibition
Online and in-person at Houseguest Gallery, Louisville, KY 16th Annual Rites of Passage, National Emerging Artists Show
Online and in-person at Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH BFA Thesis Exhibition
Bowling Green State University, Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery, Bowling Green, OH Online: here Representation Matters: I See Me Exhibition
Indiana University Kokomo, IUK Art Gallery, Kokomo, IN Fall Semester Exhibition at Studio Arts College International
Florence, Italy |
Accomplishments
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2025
2024
2024
2022
2022
2021
2021
2021
2020
2020
2019
2018
2018
2017
2017
2016
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Lyman S.V. Judson and Ellen Mackechnie Judson Graduate Student Award in the
Creative Arts, UW-Madison, Madison, WI Midwest Award for Artists with Disabilities, Arts Midwest, Minneapolis, MN
Warren MacKenzie Advancement Award, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis, MN
Artists & Craftsman 1st Place Award, IUS, New Albany, IN
Kentucky Mudworks Award, IUS, New Albany, IN
Executive Vice Chancellor's Purchase Award
IUS Annual Juried Student Exhibition, New Albany, IN Kentucky Mudworks Award
IUS Annual Juried Student Exhibition, New Albany, IN We're Still Here Micro Grant, Suffering the Silence
James W. Strong Studio Achievement Award
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH James W. Strong Outstanding Senior Award
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
Jules Maidoff Award for Best Student Artwork in Fall Semester
Honorable Mention in Painting Category
67th Annual Undergraduate Art Exhibition Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH First Place in the First Year Program Category
66th Annual Undergraduate Art Exhibition Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH Freshman Bravo Talent Award
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH Incoming Freshman Bravo Talent Award
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH |
Jurying for Exhibitions and Opportunities
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2025
2025
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Selection Panel for Creative Arts Awards for Artists with Disabilities
Touring Exhibition and Merit Awards for Arts for All Wisconsin, Madison, WI Selection Panel for In The Clouds Artist Residency for Artists with Disabilities
Cactus Club, Milwaukee, WI |
