An Artist Dialogue - Rebecca Riley and Stephanie Hightower

FREE - The Corner Room on the 1st floor

Rebecca Riley, Alexandria, flasche and maps on paper, 38x12 inches.

Artist and Professor Stephanie Hightower joins artist Rebecca Riley to discuss her exhibition Ex Libris Mundi as part of Art Wall on Third exhibition series at Mid-Manhattan Library. They discuss Riley's manipulation of maps as an aesthetic representation of how we view the changing geographies of our world.

Rebecca Riley, Alexandria (detail), flasche and maps on paper, 9x7 inches.

Rebecca Riley has an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute, and works in Brooklyn. Widely exhibited, Riley has had solo exhibitions at Brooklyn College; Cheryl McGinnis Gallery; and St Thomas Aquinas College. Riley’s work was included in Project Globe, sponsored by Travel and Leisure Magazine in 2008. She has shown at the Herter Gallery, University of Massachusetts; Jonathan Shorr Gallery; Flushing Town Hall, Smithsonian Affiliate; and the Long Beach Foundation of the Arts and Sciences. Images of her work have been published in Sight Mapping, Herter Gallery (2009); Travel and Leisure Magazine, (2008), and the March 2007 cover of the Journal of the Complexity Society. Her large scale three dimensional installation Randomland, curated by Cheryl McGinnis, was on view at the Flatiron Prow Art Space in fall 2012, and it was reviewed in the online publications ArtsObserver, Inspir3d, and Sculpture.org. Riley's work is held in numerous collections, including Agnes Gund's private collection.

Stephanie Hightower, Workhorse, 2009, oil on four panels, 36x36 inches.

Stephanie Hightower is a visual artist and professor of painting and drawing. She is represented in New York by Cheryl McGinnis Gallery. Hightower is the recent recipient of a research and lecture fellowship, entitled What is a Meadow – the unPainted Urban Landscape, with City University of New York and hosted by Technische Universitat of Berlin. Other awards include grants and residencies with The Bronx Council for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Edna St. Vincent Millay Colony, and as the 2011 Excellence in Education Honoree for NURTUREart. Hightower’s work was selected for the Artists in the Marketplace at the Bronx Museum and for one-person exhibitions at The Cooper Union on two occasions. She serves as director and faculty member for the School of Art Pre-college Program at The Cooper Union, and as Assistant Professor of Art for John Jay College. Hightower teaches painting, drawing, visual thinking, and contemporary art issues.

Initiated and organized by Arezoo Moseni in 2004, Artist Dialogues Series provide an open forum for understanding and appreciation of contemporary art. Artists are paired with critics, curators, gallerists, writers or other artists to converse about art and the potential of exploring new ideas.