STILLS Gallery

Week 2

Link; http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/riley/index.php?obj_id=about&nav=0




Michael Riley


The late Wiradjuri/Kamilaroi artist Michael Riley is one of the most important Indigenous artists of the past two decades. Over his career he created an impressive body of work ranging from black & white portraiture to film, video and large-scale digital photograph. Throughout, his concern was to celebrate the spirit of his people while also bearing witness to their struggles. He had a deep commitment to the process of reconciliation.


Riley continues to be exhibited widely nationally and internationally. In 2006/2007 a major retrospective of Riley's work was held at the National Gallery of Australia, touring to the Art Gallery of NSW in 2008. Michael Riley: sights unseen revealed the prolific talents of a quiet observer whose photomedia, video and film continues to have a profound effect on Australia's contemporary representation and comprehension of Indigenous Australia. flyblown, Riley's 1998 was exhibited at Stills Gallery in 2008 and takes as its primary subject matter the land, its importance and its destruction. This is potently portrayed in an image of a dead galah lying on parched cracked earth. Symbolic objects such as the bible, crosses, water and skies, tell a story of Aboriginal degradation and dispossession by the process of white colonisation.
Riley's photographs have also been included in Reveries: Photography & Mortality (2007), at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, and at WAVEfront (2006), Tokyo Wondersite, Japan. Riley is one of eight Indigenous artists whose work was selected to be featured in the Musee du Quai Branly in Paris (2006), which showcases Indigenous art from around the world. The landmark commission, curated by prominent Indigenous curators Brenda L. Croft (Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, National Gallery of Australia) and Hetti Perkins (Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts, Art Gallery of New South Wales), is a permanent, site-specific public artwork.


Riley's last and most significant series cloud (2000) continued his investigation of Indigenous spirituality and attachment to country. The ten large-scale colour photographs depict objects such as a feather, a cow and a boomerang suspended against brilliant blue skies. A sense of loss pervades this work. In 2004, Riley was awarded one of three Grand Prizes at the 11th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh for his cloud series, a significant achievement for the Australian artist whose work was selected from more than 300 artists from 44 countries.


Sacrifice (1992) a series of 15 beautiful and enigmatic images was perhaps Riley's first conceptual body of work. It symbolically reflects on the relationship between Indigenous people and Christianity commenting upon the conflicting role of the church as both protector of Indigenous people and destroyer of traditional culture. In 2006, Michael Riley - Sacrifice was released as a box set, at Stills Gallery.
Riley had an impressive career as an artist and cultural activist. In 1987 he was one of the founding members of Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, set up to promote the work of urban Aboriginal artists. His work is held in many private and public collections. In 2002 Empire and cloud traveled to ARCO in Spain as part of Photographica Australis and in 2003 cloud and Sacrifice featured in the Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery. Michael Riley continues to be represented by Stills Gallery in collaboration with The Michael Riley Foundation.


'Cloud' Series

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5, SOLD 1 AP Not Available

Untitled, 2000 from cloud Chromogenic pigment print 110 x 155cm, edition of 5 1 AP Not Available

'Sacrifice' Series

Michael Riley Sacrifice - boxed set 15 silver gelatin fibrebased prints 16.5 x 26cm, edition of 20				Enquire about images from this series

Untitled XI, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled VII, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 61 x 44cm, edition of 10

Untitled X, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled XIII, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled III, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 61 x 44cm, edition of 10

Untitled IV, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled XV, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled VIII, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 61 x 44cm, edition of 10

Untitled XII, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled V, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled II, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 61 x 44cm, edition of 10

Untitled VI, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled I, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10

Untitled XIV, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 61 x 44cm, edition of 10

Untitled IX, 1992 from Sacrifice Chromogenic pigment print 44 x 61cm, edition of 10