Riley Gunderson (they/them) is a Chicago-based artist and writer. Throughout their practice, Riley acts as both creator and curator, bridging academic research with physical creative explorations to investigate the material histories that intersect with their queer, trans, and feminist identities.

Riley considers their art an extension of their spiritual and embodiment practices, with many pieces doubling as visual spells. Their work prioritizes color, play, and experimentation—often spanning and combining media such as weaving, stitching, painting, sculpting, and drawing. Celestial and natural motifs and symbols appear across their pieces, along with abstract colorscapes and colorful organic shapes. 

Riley’s practice ebbs and flows as they do, lending them to often work within the structure of series and projects. At this moment, Riley’s favorite mediums include tapestry weaving, acrylic painting, and drawing with oil pastels. Their relationship to tapestry is new and exciting, but slow and meticulous, while oil pastel and acrylic offer immediacy and messiness.

Through their material investigations, Riley explores the possibilities of color, shape, and mark-making to visualize introspective feelings, energy fields, and imagined universes filled with deep, vibrant, queer joy.