Anne Riley | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Artist |
Anne Riley is an interdisciplinary artist of Slavey Dene (Fort Nelson First Nation) and German ancestry. [1] Born in Dallas, Texas, Riley currently lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. [2] Several of Riley's works derive from her identity as Indigiqueer, [3] a term coined by Cree artist TJ Cuthand, [4] and commonly used by Indigenous artists including Oji-Cree storyteller, Joshua Whitehead. [5] The term is interconnected with Two-spirit, an identity and role that continues to be vital within and across many Indigenous nations. [6] [4] Through artistic projects, Riley engages Indigenous methodologies that prioritize learning through embodiment, nurturing communities as well as the non-human world. [7] Riley received her BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012. [8] Riley is a recipient of the City of Vancouver Studio Award (2018–2021). [9]
From 2021 to 2022, Riley collaborated with artists Nadia Lichtig, Josèfa Ntjam, Jol Thoms, as well as physicists, chemists and engineers from SNOLAB on the exhibition Drift: Art and Dark Matter. [10] The project was conceived as both residency and exhibition, and has exhibited at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and the Carleton University Art Gallery. [11] [12]
From 2017 to 2019, Riley and her collaborator, T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss, worked on a public art project, A Constellation of Remediation, commissioned by the City of Vancouver. [1] The project consisted of planting Indigenous remediation gardens on vacant gas station lots throughout the city as a way of decolonizing and healing the soil. [2]
For the exhibition Every Little Bit Hurts, at the Western Front Society in Vancouver in 2015, Riley created an installation titled that brings the other nearly as close as oneself. [13] It consisted of a sculpture, made of 62 plaster molds of replicas of Riley's hands holding each other, and two sets of blue drawings on the wall of the art gallery. [14] Those drawings were created as a remnant of Riley's performance, which was documented on video and also exhibited at the exhibition. [13]
In 2015, Riley attended the Time_Place_Space: Nomad residency program in Melbourne, Australia. There, Riley expanded her scope of art practice to performance and examined experiences of silence as gestures of resilience. [15]
Riley's artworks often refer to Indigenous people's experiences, decolonization of Indigenous and women bodies, two-spirits, and healing of land and people from traumatic experiences.
Exhibitions include: