Artists’ Table Brunch With Duke Riley

On Saturday, September 25, The Watermill Center hosts an Artists’ Table Brunch with 2021 Inga Maren Otto Fellow Duke Riley. The artist’s presentation will be followed by a farm-to-table meal sourced from East End farmers and producers.

In his work, Riley marries populist myths and historical obscurities with contemporary social and environmental dilemmas, connecting past and present, drawing attention to unsolved issues. It addresses the tension between individual and collective behavior, independent spaces within all-encompassing societies, and the conflict with institutional power. He examines transgression zones and their inhabitants through drawing, printmaking, mosaic, sculpture, performative interventions, infiltrations, and video structured as complex multimedia installations. Throughout his projects, he profiles the space where water meets the land, traditionally marking the periphery of urban society, what lies beyond rigid moral constructs, a sense of danger and possibility.

Riley has had numerous solo exhibitions and received many awards and commissions, including a Percent for Art commission, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, and the MTA Arts For Transit commission for the Beach 98th Street Station renovation.

Born in Boston, he received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, before moving to New York, settling in Brooklyn, and earning his MFA from Pratt Institute. In the spring of 2016, Riley partnered with Creative Time and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to produce the public art sensation, “Fly By Night,’ which was completely reimagined in 2018 as a tribute to the role of pigeons in WWI, produced by 1418Now and the London International Festival of Theater in the historic community of Thamesmead.

The Artists Table Brunch is Saturday, September 25, from noon to 2 p.m. at The Watermill Center, at 39 Water Mill Towd Road, Water Mill. Tickets are $100 to $250 and attendees will be required to present proof of vaccination prior to entry. To reserve, visit watermillcenter.org.