Cheryl McGinnis Gallery presents Rebecca Riley’s new cartographic paintings in a solo exhibition 75 Mile Radius. The subject of her paintings are the familiar cities that comprise the megalopolis that extends from Boston to Washington D.C.  Riley works on top of actual maps and fills them with patterned images of dividing cells.The artist looks at maps as a structure upon which to build a pattern. These patterns reveal the evolution of development in a country or a city.  They are a part of a system of growth that can be envisioned into the future.  Riley utilizes the inherent organization within a map to create a surface that blurs the line between map and abstract work of art.  The paintings are at once large unified surfaces of color and pattern as well as  a microscopic peering-into-minute detail of  each city.

A concurrent exhibition curated by David Gibson, Site Mapping at the Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts Amherst, January 31st through March 1st, 2009.

Most notable recent exhibits include Project Globe, an exhibition sponsored by Travel and Leisure Magazine and Future Generations, a non- profit organization, Creative Cartographies, at the Brooklyn Arts Council.

This exhibits marks Riley’s second exhibit, but first solo exhibit with the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery. Riley’s work was last exhibited in “Microspace,” a group exhibition.

Riley was born in Colorado and currently works in New York City.  She holds a BA in art from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.