JAMES RIELLY

James Rielly’s work is characterised by the use of pastel tones and watery strokes, creating a sphere of tension and unease that reveal the artist’s intention to insinuate and leave the interpretation of his works open to the viewer. The scenes that appear in his work are tinged with humour and irony, mostly children’s portraits, based on stories and images culled from newspaper articles, old books, comics or magazines that he keeps for inspiration. He invites visitor to question things like the stages of transition to adulthood and the construction of an individual’s identity.

Those images, together with the artist’s imagination, are the starting point for Rielly’s works, whose characters often convey in their faces gestures of inquiry that evoke a hidden idea, a feeling, an event that cannot be explained or words that cannot be expressed.

The face is the basis of Rielly’s works, and he uses features like the eyes or the smile to heighten the expressiveness of the character at the centre of the storytold in each painting: Drugs (2020) shows the face of a teenager with two pairs of eyes; Held in Place by Reality (2020) depicts a blonde girl with big blue eyes and a third eye emerging from her mouth and Actual Size (2002) portrays a light-eyed child resting on crossed arms. The gazes of his portrait subjects are unsettling and tend to denote a degree of discomfort, at times even upsetting viewers by forcing them to face their own fears: Vertical and Horizontal Lines (2020) shows staring eyes over a swirl of oranges and yellows.

Rielly also addresses the complex process of how people forge an identity; as we journey through the different stages of human life, from infancy to adulthood, sometimes we create masks to conceal certain aspects that make us more vulnerable. His characters frequently hide their faces behind masks, leaving only the eyes visible, for instance in the works In Disguise (2022), Let’s Have Tea Togther (2023), Do’es and Don’ts (2021), Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive (2021) and Meow, Meow (2023).

Irony and absurdity run rampant in Rielly’s oeuvre, at times personified by figures disguised as bedsheet ghosts; in Without Rhyme or Reason, In Love (2017), two people sit on a sofa under a blanket, pretending to be phantoms, similar to Ghosts with Fears and Inhibitions (2017).

Heads concealed by paper or cloth bags, hoods or assorted stains over whichbright eyes, double gazes, abundant tears and other elements stand out are arecurring device in Rielly’s work. The British artist uses abstract and geometricshapes, particularly lines and circles, to catch the viewer’s attention. To Live inBeautiful Times (2021) feature coloured lines that simulate an undulatingmovement with eyes in the centre and The Light Shines Out of Everyone (2020)has illusory black and white lines. Circles and dots figure prominently in workslike Delight in the Senses (2021); and Love and Be Loved in Return (2021),where a young man's face is covered with coloured circles that conceal hisfeatures.

James Rielly (Wrexham, UK, 1965) currently lives and works in France, wherehe is a professor at Beaux-Arts de Paris. In 1997, he participated in thelandmark group show Sensation: Young British Artists from the SaatchiCollection at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Since then, he has exhibitedhis work at countless venues round the world.

His most important solo exhibitions include Almost Everything in Its CorrectPlace, Galerie Wittenbrink, Munich (2022); James Rielly, Alzueta Gallery,Barcelona (2021); Born with a Plastic Spoon, Knife and Fork in My Mouth,Monteverita, Paris (2019); Stories for Mexican Ghosts and Children of All Ages,GE Galeria, Monterrey, Mexico (2018); Flowers, Ghosts and Insects, A FewShort Stories, Galería Herrero de Tejada, Madrid (2017); Thinking ThingsThrough, New Art Projects, London (2016); Everything Is Something Else,Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin (2015); James Rielly, Ty Hyll, Cabinet des dessinsJean Bonna, Beaux-Arts de Paris (2015); Ty Hyll - The Ugly House, The Studio,Llandudno, North Wales (2014); Punch Me, La Box, Bourges, France (2014);and When I was young I would sit in the bath and ideas would come to me, nowI am old I sit in the bath, Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California(2013).

Rielly’s work can be found in many public and private collections around theworld, most notably the Arts Council of England, the Saatchi Collection andTate Gallery (London), the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh)and the National Museum of Wales (Cardiff) in the UK; the Dakis JoannouCollection and Frissiras Collection in Athens, Greece; the Fonds National d’ArtContemporain, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes and FRAC Auvergne in France; Museu das Artes de Sintra in Portugal; the Deutsche Bank Collection in Germany; and CASA Salamanca and the Wurth Collection in Spain.

Courtesy CAC Málaga and Palau de Casavells-Alzueta Gallery