Duke Riley, Cob Dock & the Red Hook Lady Fliers (detail), 2017. Wood, tin, roofing tar, latex paint, slip cast ceramic pigeons and performance ephemera from Fly by Night. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Nye’ Lyn Tho Photograph
By Betsy DiJulio
If you search online for “Duke Riley,” the first person who pops up is likely to be the Miami Dolphins linebacker. Though there are some similarities between Duke Riley the NFL star and Duke Riley the artist—impressive tattoos and connections to the sea—the one we are foregrounding is more likely to have a pen—or a piece of plastic—in his hands rather than a pigskin.
Riley, the Boston-born, Brooklyn- and Rhode Island-based art world agitator, is hard to categorize. From public performative pieces that have been called “audacious” to monumental and impeccably crafted—okay, jaw-dropping—ink drawings, mosaics, and so much more, this Duke Riley is a force to be reckoned with by air, land, and sea.
With a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Pratt, and with studios both on shore and bobbing just off, not to mention a tattoo parlor in Brooklyn, Riley has made a name for himself as both a pigeon-loving provocateur with a purpose and a chronicler of, at times, naughty nautical narratives. His allegorical tales tend to be inventive mashups of maritime and naval history, present-day politics, myth, and pure fiction that draw heavily on seafarer’s crafts like scrimshaw, sailor’s valentines, and flash art.
What author Ann Patchett’s mother said about her daughter’s most autobiographical novel comes to mind: none of it happened; all of it’s true. While, here, some of it is factually true, that which isn’t nonetheless has a deeper truth about it. Whether Riley is taking on over-production and over-consumption of plastics, gentrification, the individual vs. the institution, or the contradictions and hypocrisies of power dynamics and political ideologies, he often does it with his moral compass calibrated equally for the greater good and a good laugh.
Drawings, prints, mosaics, sculpture, video, and even wallpaper (more on that below) come together in O’er the Wide and Plastic Sea in what could have been overwhelming in number and variety were it not for guest curator Melissa Messina’s organizing framework. She has made her former graduate school classmate’s prodigious output easier to navigate by grouping it into three themes: Pirates and Patriots, described as nautical narratives, real and imagined; Pigeons, artistic interventions honoring pigeons and humans; and Plastics, sculptural adaptations of single use plastics.
There is much to dazzle and provoke at both the micro and macro levels. In Pirates and Patriots, sweeping ink drawings on canary paper like “Be Good or Be Gone,” are pure Riley but reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch, as a close look at the intricate and complex narrative reveals people emerging from the mouths of fish with a touch of bestiality here and nod to oral sex there. Crossing over into the Plastics category are stop-you-in-your-tracks mosaics fashioned from a combination of seashells and plastic detritus plucked from the ocean and water’s edge. At the entrance to the exhibition, “O’er the Wide and Plastic Sea,” from 2023, is 40 x 116 inches of delight…that is, until you realize that the containers on that container ship are all Bic lighters and that the encircling whales are made of dirty black hair combs. Combined with row upon row of dancing shells, the piece remains visually enchanting even as it sounds a sorrowful note about the plight of our oceans.
Ever since nursing an injured pigeon to health as a child, Riley has kept and trained pigeons, incorporating them into pieces like “Fly by Night,” an avian light shows in which the artist released some 2,000 pigeons over six weekends to swoop and swirl over New York’s East River at dusk, each one bearing an LED light attached to one of its legs. He also conscripted pigeons to serve as Cuba-to-Key West cigars smugglers. Artistic tributes—from portraits to handmade cigar harnesses to a mobile pigeon coop—comprise this section of the exhibition.
Finally, highlighted in the Plastics section are an array of brightly colored and beguiling fishing lures, all ingeniously fashioned from salvaged plastics like tampon applicators, in addition to Riley’s signature faux scrimshaw, and a new series of faux ruby glass crafted especially for this exhibition. The signature “scrimshaw,” which the artist makes using plastic bottles, ink, and wax, bears a startling resemblance to its forebears made by 19th century whalers who etched their images into tusk and bone, emphasizing the fine lines with lampblack.
Lynnhaven River Now and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation helped gather plastic detritus for Riley’s newest work: replicas of the ruby glass which was a popular turn-of-the-century tourist souvenir in towns like Virginia Beach as working people began to enjoy more leisure time. Virtually indistinguishable from actual ruby glass without a discerning look, the likes of detergent bottles have been pigmented and then etched to create convincing likenesses.
Throughout, this show demands a close look for, while the forms may be familiar, the content is rife with camouflaged contemporary commentary. If it leaves you craving more, you can live with Riley’s art on your own walls in the form of wallpaper designed by the artist as seen in the exhibition: https://www.flavorpaper.com/wallpaper/patterns/digital/tidal-fool.
Duke Riley: O’er the Wide and Plastic Sea
Through July 31
Virginia MOCA
