James Rielly

JAMES RIELLY (Wales, 1956).
"Thinking things throught, build again".
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated on the back.
Provenance: Romero Paprocki gallery.
Measurements: 71 x 61 cm; 76 x 66 cm (frame).

In this composition, Rielly represents a group of schematic figures joined of the hand forming a circle on an intense green bottom that suggests a meadow. The silhouettes, resolved with a brushstroke, are constructed with flat colors that reinforce the symbolic character of the scene. The work conveys a sense of community and human connection, recurring themes in his production, where the figure becomes a vehicle for emotional and psychological reflection.

James Rielly developed a figurative painting with a strong expressive charge, characterized by formal simplification and the bold use of color. Linked to the contemporary British scene, his work explores identity, human relationships and introspection through anonymous figures that acquire a universal character.

Rielly has shown his paintings in a number of solo exhibitions since 1983, including the Nantes Museum of Fine Arts, Nantes, France, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, Fond Regional d'Art Contemporain Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, Centro de Arte de Salamanca (CASA), Salamanca, Spain, Centre d'Art Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA, among many others. In 1995 he was awarded a MOMART fellowship at Tate Gallery and in 1997 he was shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize. He has been a professor of painting at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France since 2006.