Photo by Tom Grill
BIO
CHERYL R. RILEY is a multi-media artist, furniture designer, and art advisor to private collectors like actor Jesse Williams, a condo development in Harlem, and corporations such as BET. Her focus in this practice is artists of the Black African Diaspora. She creates wall art, installations, site-specific public artworks, and custom designs for corporate titans and celebrity clients. Her works are in the permanent collections of two Smithsonian Museums, SFMoMA, the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, and the Mint Museum of Art & Design. She recently received a commission from the Brooklyn Museum and has another work currently on view at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. She is a former board member at several museums as well as on the first site-specific artist residency in the U.S.--Capp Street Project. She recently joined the board of the Museum of Art & Design on Columbus Circle for a second term.
FROM CHERYL: “My art explores similarities between seemingly disparate cultures viewed through the lens of gender, history, rituals, implements and symbols. Two sculpture projects have occupied me for the last three years that address societal structures, nourishment, representation, aspiration and transcendence.
I have exhibited in over 60 group and solo shows throughout the U.S. My public art projects are installed in New York City, San Francisco, Sacramento and Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport. Furniture designs are in private collections, as well as museums, including two Smithsonian's and SFMoMA and I am a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist grant recipient.
I've juried art shows, taught, lectured and served on panels nationally, including the NY School of Interior Design, Yale University, the School of Visual Art and The Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia. Service on the executive boards of museums and non-profits has enabled me to be a contribution to the diversity of their programming and grant-making choices. These entities include the first site-specific artist residency in the U.S., Capp Street Project, and the Museum of Art and Design (MAD) in New York City.
I’ve authored articles about artists in national publications and curated corporate collections for entities such as BET. Educating neophyte art-lovers is a passion I’ve fed through lectures on subjects like "The Art of Art Collecting" and by hosting group trips to destinations such as Cuba for the Havana Biennale.
You may view my resume here.
MEDIA
Museum of Art and Design: Artist Interview 2000