James Rielly, a British artist, born in 1956, lives and works in France, he is a Professor at the Beaux-arts de Paris, regularly exhibits his works internationally and to great acclaim.
Rielly’s works are subtle yet inherently dark, his use of humour and images to tell stories are a constant and are central to his art works. Slightly twisted psychology of the rites of passage is central to what Rielly’s works meditate upon regularly. The hesitation between life’s transitions depicted as we consider whether adolescences is genuinely innocent in light of how we behave as adults.
He has had various artist residencies in places such as The Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, USA 1984/85, Kunstlerhause Bethanien, Berlin 1988/89, and The Momart fellowship, Liverpool Tate gallery, 1995, and a residency at Auckland Print Studio in early 2019.
His works have been the subject of solo shows such as Sensible ways, Musee des Beaux-arts de Nates, France 1997, Centre d’art Nauchatel, Switzerland 1998, La Box, Bourges, France 2014. Beaux-Arts de Paris, Cabinet des Dessins Jean Bonna 2015. Plus numerous group shows, Sensation- Saatchi collection, Royal Academy, London 1997. Outlook, Athens 2003, curated by Christos M Joachimides. Donation Florence et Daniel Guerlain, Centre Pompidou, Paris 2014 and We lived our lives in the spiritual not the material world, 2016 and Stories for Mexican ghosts and children of all ages, 2018, Galeria Estereo. Mexico.