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Jim Riley

Hamilton-born artist and curator Jim Riley has been called to art through a series of happy coincidences. His first choice was teacher’s college, then psychology, before finally settling into his passion, “[I had] done some art in high school and in teacher’s college, and I was interested. Actually, I was hired as an art teacher so it was directing my life towards the arts.”

While still pursuing a degree in psychology with a minor in art at Brock University, he decided to look into McMaster University because of their art and art history department. Eager to turn his full attention towards art, he called the Hamilton school, “I went and had an interview with George Wallace, who was the head of the art department at that time, and he accepted me as a student but I said I had to go finish off my first degree!”

Jim Riley. “Inheritance”. 1994. Solvent transfer, canvas and swede saw. 28 x 36”. Courtesy of the artist: As part of the masculinity series a swede saw that my father inherited from an elder man I incorporated the male form in to the saw.

After living in other cities for several years, Riley started to reconnect to his Hamilton roots and joined the Hamilton Artists Inc. As he became deeply involved with the organization, his interest turned towards printmaking because of the Inc.’s attachment to Printspace, which eventually became a separate collective when the Inc. could no longer secure grants to sustain it. This change did not phase Riley, “I continued printmaking, and that was before Center 3 was around. Printspace was quite interesting. In fact, I remember an installation that I did in Printspace in the window. There was nothing else going on in Hamilton, not much. Eventually there were things like the Hammer Gallery which was really, really powerful. And these community art exhibitions continued.”

Exhibiting led to jurying which led to curating, “I had joined the curatorial committee at the Hamilton Artists Inc. and the philosophy was artist curators. The belief was that artists would have a different perspective than curators from public galleries. That became eventually very controversial because the artists, as an artist, were encouraged to participate in the exhibitions that they were curating. That was eventually seen as not a good thing.”

Jim Riley. “Intolerance”. 1989. Print installation. 160 x 78 x 41”. Courtesy of the artist: This installation was created for the Printspace window on James St. N and Cannon. It questions the conflict on whether Sikhs should be permitted to wear a turban head cover instead of the traditional stetson hat of the RCMP. At night red lights flash to signal danger (in attitudes).

Jim Riley. “Father and Son”. 1989. Solvent transfer, monoprint. Courtesy of the artist: As part of the masculinity series I recreate images from my childhood that included my father.

The Inc.’s encouragement of artist curators allowed for an easy transition into the new world of curating for Riley, and he was able to explore his interests on a broader scale, “one of my main curatorial projects took five years of my life. Not every day, but was focused. It was called Cross Ties between the ‘80s and the ‘90s exploring the social and political issues of the time. And that included AIDS, which was unknown at the time and [people] still believed that people could be killed by drinking out of the same glass as someone who was HIV [positive]. There was a lot of mystery there so the social issues that we picked for the exhibition were what we thought were cutting edge.”

His interest in the social issues of the time continued, “I made a monoprint, and it dealt with the issue of tolerance [towards] Sikhs in particular. The imagery showed that, and I had a red flashing light that went off and on and was on a timer so even when we weren’t there after the opening, the image was there every night.”

Jim Riley. “Education Funding” (detail). 1988. Acrylic, plaster, video, wood, canvas, manipulated copier, found objects. 72 x 48 x 55”. Courtesy of the artist.

Although largely setting his own path, Riley credits his peers at the Inc. for inspiring him in the direction of social commentary, “I think curatorial-wise, Scott Marsden and V. Jane Gordon who chaired the curatorial committee at the Inc. impacted my perceptions on curating and the social activism and then I eventually actually was doing video curating and installations, edgy kind of work.”

Riley continued to be active with the Hamilton art scene throughout the 1990s, finding a home within the philosophies and interests of his fellow artists, “the dialogue that happened at that time between artists in Hamilton was very good when you could put an emerging artist with an experienced artist and it was fascinating to see how those two rather different people and the audience too is very prone to being very supportive and would ask interesting questions.”

Jim Riley. “Patriarchal Pressure”. 1995. Silkscreen, transfer, video and monitor. 120’ x 63”. Courtesy of the artist.

Riley’s legacy in the arts lasts almost 30 years, and he continues to be involved in the arts today. His encouragement of collaboration between Hamilton art institutions has laid the groundwork of today’s scene, including the Building Cultural Legacies project. When asked about what is the most significant aspect of Hamilton’s art community, he stated, “I think the strongest thing is that they’re still here!”

The following oral history video was filmed in August 2018 at the Hamilton Public Library, central branch sound studio, for the Building Cultural Legacies project as part of a series of conversations between emerging and established artists, organized by the Hamilton Arts Council and the Hamilton Public Library and funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.