APRIL 2026 NEWSLETTER

“THINGS THAT LOOK LIKE MAGIC: CHERYL R. RILEY & WHARTON ESHERICK”

LongHouse Exhibit

Curated by

GLENN ADAMSON

133 Hands Creek Road, East Hampton, NY 11937

May 2, 2026 – September 6, 2026

Those of you who have spent time in the Hamptons may know about, and have visited, LongHouse. This nirvana, created by textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen and inspired by Native peoples, was designed and built as a summer home, arboretum, and art park filled with wonders of the world. Jack and I were longtime friends. We both served on the board of the American Craft Museum, now the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), in New York City.

My wife and I spent delightful days with him, learning about his newest art and craft purchases, riding in his golf cart as he surveyed the property, often stopping to pull up unwelcome weeds that only his acute eyes could discern. We enjoyed lectures about the monumental artworks dotting the property, which changed every summer.

I have had the pleasure of co-composing the show with the support and skills of Director Carrie Rebora Barratt and esteemed curator Glenn Adamson. All this was made possible by my dear longtime friend and patron, Barbara Tober. She has also commissioned my “opera husband,” Jonathan Lucas, to create couture outfits for both of us composed from Jack’s textiles in the archive.

McCOLL CENTER FOR ART + INNOVATION - Artist Residency

July 20, 2026 – August 31, 2026

I have been granted a residency at the McColl in Charlotte, North Carolina. I look forward to sharing that experience with you. Don’t be shy about suggesting ideas for a community project with neighboring elementary school children. I still glow when I remember my projects with the Charter School kids during my Frank Lloyd Wright Martin House residency in September and October of 2024.

Despite the fact that I was signed up for the painting studio during my Saugatuck, Michigan, Oxbow Artist Residency in 2018, I wandered into the ceramic space and fell in love with the medium. Eventually, the artists who had actually signed up for it and knew how to work with clay had me thrown out, with tools, instructions, and the promise that anything I created would be fired. Those pieces found their place in my Sculptures in the Form of a Necklace series. At McColl, I will be collaborating with skilled craftspeople. They will assist me in creating new work, sharing their expertise and first-rate tools. I am on the Gantt’s mailing list and have always admired their community programming, so I know I will be further inspired by it, by their fine collection of art, and by the community of young adults.

DRESSING UP

THE SCHEHERAZADE BED

The Scheherazade Bed has entered the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). It was gifted by producer Marsha Garces Williams via the estate of her and her husband, the late Robin Williams. Now, at my request, linens are being generously donated by the Ann Gish company by its owner, Jane Gish, daughter of the founder. Jane also gave linens to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for my Constellation bed, which was exhibited last year. It was loaned to the Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) by SFMOMA for the “Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors & Radical Black Joy” group exhibit. For public programming, I was in conversation with MOAD Chief of Curatorial Affairs & Public Programs, Key Jo Lee. Jane and I had a wonderful collaboration on the design. I created necklaces for the pillow after being inspired by examples in their collection.

EXTRAORDINARY THINGS

FLINN GALLERY

101 West Putnam Avenue, Second Floor, Greenwich, CT 06830

Opening reception: Thursday, May 7, 6–8 p.m.

Artists Talk: Sunday, May 17, at 2 pm

May 7, 2026 – June 17, 2026

Most of my Transcendence Preserved sculpture series will be at The Flinn in the group exhibition extraORDINARY things. It is a four-artist show running from May 7 to June 17, curated by Ellen Hawley. The exhibition explores what household objects reveal about us, our histories, our domestic lives, and our identities.

Treated with gold where people would engage them, the works in my Transcendence Preserved series represent how my family, and many generations of every race and nationality, have survived, thrived, and excelled despite boundaries, prejudice, and racism.

I am thrilled to report that one of my very best friends, patrons, and fellow Texans, Reggie Van Lee, has acquired the Singer sewing machine and the typewriter for his family compound, where custom pedestals are being fabricated.

SMITHSONIAN HONOR

The Smithsonian has chosen to add my files to their archive: everything related to my life as a furniture designer, an artist, artist coach, art advisor, art collector, artists’ advocate, model, editor, residency awardee, and arts, design, and craft institutions’ board member. They have taken all the correspondences, photographs, project folders, and magazine and newspaper articles from the beginning to the present.

This placement is kismet. My first solo museum exhibition and commission, in September 1993, was at the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt. “Design Process: Cheryl R. Riley” was curated by David Revere McFadden when he was Curator of Decorative Arts and Assistant Director for Collections and Research. After viewing my portfolio, he commissioned the two Tudor Tables (below). The first two were designed for my Posse Woman and one of my best friends, Carolyn Tyler. The opening was a joyous occasion, with many members of my family coming from different states.

Fortunately, I was able to find the original blue-sky pages of sketches and scale drawings to include with my donation. It is beyond amazing that these tables have been exhibited three times, which is rare due to the abundance of objects in museum collections. Most recently, they were included in “Duro Olowu Selects,” on view from April to August 2022. Featured was Henry VIII, though not his daughter, Elizabeth I. Both are shown in the photo below from the book “America’s Smithsonian,” when they premiered in “Design Process: Cheryl R. Riley.”

AVAILABLE ON SHOPIFY

Until May 1, 2026
Place Your Orders Now!

All prints and the Oracle deck will be discontinued at the end of April 2026. If you have been considering any as gifts for family, friends, or work colleagues, please place your orders as soon as possible using the link.

I will be working on a new group of artworks that I hope you will love as much as you have loved these offerings. I appreciate all of you who gifted them or added them to your collections.