Bio
Rebecca Riess was born in London in 1972. She received her BFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore MD 1994 and MFA from Columbia University, School of The Arts, NYC 1996.
She has exhibited widely, both across the US (including LA, Chicago, NYC) and in Europe. In 2010 she moved to Suffolk, UK. Her practice involves drawing, painting, sculpture and stitching. The work usually contains fictional spaces which overlap with reality, non-linear timelines, feminist and socio-political concerns and critiques. She is 1/2 of For Folk Sake a curatorial and artist collective working throughout East Anglia, UK.
Statement
The work must mean something to me in terms of narrative but not necessarily to the viewer. There is a direct relationship to the world and my existence in it: emotional, physical, political. The work is never fully abstracted because it contains so much of the subjective. All my work contains such distinct narratives, but these are not always narratives I care to share. The narrative is really part of a process to enable me to complete a piece. I cannot finish the work without a personal understanding of what it means to me on a very fundamental level. It can be abstract in terms of the interaction of subjects. It can contain non-linear narratives with non-linear timelines. Shapes have relationships to each other, that transcend the purely visual, just like a relationship of an idea in the past relates to an idea in the present or future. Timelines, ideas, forms, colours, all overlap in the fiction of making, but narrative is at the root of the whole process.
Education and Development
2022 New Platform Art Professional Development Program, UK
2021 Lead Artist Commission - Suffolk Peer Group Critique - The Art Station, Suffolk,
2020-22 Contemporary Painting Mentor Program, New Art School, UK
1994-96 MA Fine Arts Columbia University, School of The Arts, NYC, NY, USA
1995 Residency Fellowship, Skowhegen School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, USA
1990-94 BA Fine Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore MD, USA
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Scenes From a Place Called World, The Art Station, Suffolk UK
2024 Plaything, The Art Station, Suffolk UK
2023 Dead Rural, 303 Projects, Suffolk UK
1997 Fizzgig, POST, Los Angeles CA, USA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
Popstraction, Curated by Michael Stubbs, Atelier Gallery, Leiston, UK
Encounters, The London Art Fair, Represented by The Art Station, London UK
2024
For Folk Sake, The Cut, Suffolk UK
Thread Count Part Two, The Old Theatre Framlingham, Suffolk UK
Thread Count Part One, The Art Station, Suffolk UK
Unconsumed ll, The Shoe Factory, Norwich UK
Clyde & Co Art Prize, Shortlisted Exhibition, London UK
Macfarlanes’ Art Prize, Shortlisted Exhibition, London UK
Encouters, The London Art Fair, Represented by 303 Projects, London UK
2023
Goddesses on Sea, The Lido Stores, Margate, UK
The Goddesses (A Love Explosion), Terrace Gallery, London, UK
2022
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, The Art Station, Suffolk UK
StudioUS, PRIMYARC, Originalprojects, Norfolk
Shortlisted for Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
Give Me Love, The Lido Stores, Margate, UK
2021
FOR SUFFOLK SAKE, The Art Station, Suffolk, UK, Curated by Rebecca Riess and Alexander Costello
2002
Relative Object, POST, Los Angeles CA, USA
Alice doesn’t live here anymore, Marvelli Gallery, NYC NY, USA
La Tigresa Ultima, ACME, Los Angeles CA, USA
Frankfurt International Art Fair, represented by POST, Frankfurt, Germany
Chicago International Art Fair, represented by POST, Chicago IL, USA
2001
Duck n Drink DiannePruess, Los Angeles CA, USA
100% Rag, POST, Los Angeles CA, USA
Two Friends and so on, Marc Foxx, Los Angeles CA, USA
Somewhere in the Night, POST, Los Angeles CA, USA
2000
Night of a 1000 Drawings, Artists Space, NYC NY, USA
Next to Fish CornerCorp, Canal Street NYC NY, USA
1999
Milennial Tension POST, Los Angeles CA, USA
1998
8.1/29.98, POST, Los Angeles CA, USA
Plaats (Place) W139, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Individually Twisted, Andrew Shire Gallery, Los Angeles CA, USA
Square Pegs, Ron Breeden Gallery, OC CA, USA
1997
Gramercy International Art Fair, Represented by POST, Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles CA
1996
24 Degrees, curated by Kenny Schachter, 480 Broome Street, NYC NY, USA
Avoid Collision, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Watson Gallery, Columbia University NYC NY, USA
Small Sea 2020, 30 x 40cm, Vinyl Emulsion on Linen