Rafael Attias
on sabbatical academic year 2024–25
Rafael Attias left his native Venezuela to pursue a degree at RISD. An experienced designer and art director, Attias has focused on communication strategies and brand building through the development and application of well thought-out design practices. As a multidisciplinary fine artist, curator and promoter of the arts, he has worked in diverse fields, navigating the spaces between fine art practice and design, often searching for where the two worlds intersect.
Attias has taught at RISD since 1998. He has successfully balanced his professional design life with an academic career and finds the two arenas to be mutually beneficial and dynamic. In 2001 he was honored to be a candidate for the Award for Excellence in Teaching at RISD.
Academic areas of interest
The bulk of Attias’ teaching has been in computer-based digital media tools. He has also led several interdisciplinary partnered studios and research initiatives that include ESPN, the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), the Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) and RISD’s Nature Lab–hosted Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program. Most recently he served as a critic during the 2020 RI C-AIM Vis-a-thon, a collaboration with the Edna Lawrence Nature Lab at RISD.