7445 N. Campbell Chicago, IL 60645                773.458.3150                [email protected]

bruce riley

           

           

           

     

Bruce Riley is an alchemist. It's an overused term in abstract painting but in this case it's true. Using experimental techniques for creating the paintings for his current show, Riley plans his paintings, but along the way he wrangles the accidents and mistakes that are inevitable. In the studio he focuses on flow allowing immediate observation to guide a painting's progress. He keeps everything fresh within his daily routine by working on multiple works, which inform and feed on each other. He cannot say what it is that tips a painting in one direction or the other. It's just apparent to him when something is done. The process is a living thing that's of the moment. The recent paintings have a psychedelic, organic sculptural feel about them. They are process-driven, relying on chance as much as intent and chemical interactions within the paint are always welcome. Riley paints for himself, but if the viewers were to forget themselves while looking at these pieces, they would be as close as one can get to an understandable meaning.

Educated at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, he spent most of his time studying the works in the adjoining Cincinnati Art Museum. The artist also studied fine arts at the University of Cincinnati where he discovered The Princeton University Press' Bollingen Series. These published works of philosophers and progressive thinkers like Eric Neumann, Carl Jung, David Bohm and J. Krishnamurti, were of great importance to the artist's development.