I’ve always been amazed at how much Erin M. Riley wants to show in her work with pretense that she doesn’t fully know what it can look like in its final form. Riley’s practice is about building a story, an images, that has unpredictability in that, on a loom, you don’t see that final piece until, dare I say, it’s too late. A painting you can edit, shift, adjust, clean, add, live with. A textile work takes a different kind of focus to a result. It’s painstakingly difficult to spend this much time in a memory, in a feeling, but Riley has always been dedicated to bringing herself face to face with memories and personal traumas in a way that is rare for a contemporary artist. She is autobiographical and open to chance.
October 25, 2025 is the final date to see Riley’s standout solo show at P.P.OW in NYC, Life Looks Like a House For a Few Hours, a show that Carlo McCormick was able to sit down with her prior to its opening for a feature in The Unibrow Issue 01 (read that here). Although a culmination of her practice to date, this feels like a refreshed Riley, a focused artist at the peak of her talent, with a new sense of purpose to push the limits of her own subject matter and the textile itself. “I like that idea of hiding away,” Riley explains, “how they have been lost and recovered, so durable, but somehow the underdog and under-appreciated.”
