by Ariadna Zierold
Erin M. Riley is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work focuses on women and women’s issues primarily in hand-woven tapestries. Riley received her BFA in 2007 from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, MA and her MFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA, in 2009.
Erin has been weaving imagery culled from the Internet, and more recently photographs she has taken of herself using hand-dyed wool on a floor loom. Based on social media images as well as autobiographical experiences that focus on objects and fleeting moments, Riley’s work offers visual dialogue that aims to reevaluate and reconsider the values of contemporary women, their social spheres and stratification, as well as their attitudes towards sex and sexuality through keyhole-like glimpses into their lives.
She can finish a medium sized piece in 80-90 hours. When she is working on an upcoming exhibition, she spends about 12-14 hours a day weaving and can finish one piece in a week. Her most recent huge piece took her a month.
