Art Exhibition Explores 19th Century Photographic Process
Milliken Art Gallery will host a selection of photographs by Owen Riley Jr., a Greenville-based artist, teacher and photojournalist, through Feb. 3, 2012. Letting the Light In explores the artist’s world through the 19th century process of wet-plate collodion photography. The exhibition is open for viewing Monday—Friday from 9:00 am—5:00 pm, and Sunday from 2:00—5:00 pm. The gallery is closed during school holidays.
Riley will give a Gallery Talk about his career and art process on Thursday, Jan. 19 at 6:00 pm in Milliken Art Gallery. The talk will be followed by an opening reception at 6:30 pm. The exhibit and events are free and open to the public.
Letting the Light In encourages visitors to reflect on their own lives and the people they hold close. Riley says, “My work is a visual meditation on the transitions of life, death, love and emotion that come with age and responsibility. It is what I can touch and feel viewed through the frame of domesticity. It is a ballad of introspection, melancholy and hope redefining the beauty that has been masked by the fractures of time.”
Owen Riley Jr. holds a bachelors degree in art from Berry College, attended graduate school in the Magazine Writing Program at The University of Georgia and received his MFA in visual arts/photography from Clemson University. His work is in the permanent collections of The Greenville Art Museum, The Greenville Fine Arts Center and in private and corporate collections across the United States. In addition to national and regional juried and invitational shows, Riley’s work has been shown in recent solo shows at Berry College’s Moon Gallery in Georgia and at the Greenville Fine Arts Center.
In addition to his artwork, Riley’s photojournalism and commercial work has been published nationally and internationally. He is a former South Carolina Photojournalist of the Year.
For more information about this exhibition, contact Kathryn Boucher, Milliken Art Gallery Director for Converse College, at kathryn.boucher@converse.edu.