Jennifer Riley (b. Sharon, CT) Riley’s work has earned critical attention for her solo exhibitions in NYC, Boston and across the US. In 2004 she was recipient of the Award in Painting from the Massachusetts State Cultural Council.
Riley has been making color-rich abstract and semi-abstract paintings for years and in the last few years her work has made a marked shift from what could be considered a Pop-inflected, postmodernist tilt toward a purer form of classical abstraction, reversing the historical sequence. Riley includes large scale steel sculptural projects in her studio practice, unveiling a 60 foot long permanent public work in Manhattan and in late 2016, a 50 foot long piece in Indianapolis made from repurposed laser cut sheets of steel from the combustion/Diesel engine industry. New paintings and drawings integrate aspects of industry, anthropology, technology and nature.
Riley is a contributing editor at ArtCritical.com, Board Member and Treasurer of Triangle Arts Association, and currently serves as Gallery Curator at Indiania University Center for Art+Design. She has been active as a teacher, curator, panelist and guest critic (Harvard Graduate School of Design- (where Riley co-developed and led the Rome Seminar in Rome from 1996-2013), Indiana University, Pratt Institute, MICA, Columbia and Yale,MIT, RISD among others) a catalogue essayist and arts writer for Artcritical, the New York Sun and the Brooklyn Rail.
Riley received her BFA from Tufts and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA in 1991, Diplome Superieur D’Etudes Francais 1986 Universite de Rouen, Rouen, France and an MFA from The Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts-Bard College, 2001.
