Cheryl R. Riley

Cheryl R. Riley (born 1952) is an American artist and furniture designer. Her official website is cherylrriley.com/ 
Career.
Furniture.
Riley pursued a career in advertising and fashion before focusing on design. In 1986, Riley formed Right Angle Designs in San Francisco, starting out by designing and producing furniture. She is said to be one of the only African American designers to establish a national reputation for her furniture design.
Her furniture work is exhibited and permanently displayed in museums throughout the United States, including "Coin Encrusted Tudor Tables II & III" (1992) at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, "Sunburst and Starburst Chairs" (1994) and "de Medici Cabinets" (1994) at the Oakland Museum of California, "Zulu Renaissance Writing Table for a Lady" (1995) and "Hunter’s Screen" (1994-1998) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and "Bakuba Griffin Dining Table" (1992) at The Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC.
Riley's furniture work has been featured in over 60 group shows throughout the United States and several solo shows in New York and California, including the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in 1993.
Other Work.
The cities of San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, and Sacramento have commissioned Riley for murals and sculptures since the inception of Right Angle Designs. She designed the interior of the public lobby of Bayview Police Station in Bayview-Hunters Point, San Francisco, from 1991 to 1997. In 2000, Riley was hired to design the mural, "MBUTI WOMEN" (2000) in San Francisco, CA Bayview District.
Riley was commissioned to design the awards statue for the American Black Film Festival (then called the Acapulco Black Film Festival Awards). In 2019, the award was acquired by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture for their permanent collection.
Her "GLYPH" series is a visual vocabulary system painted on vintage encyclopedia pages. In 2019, her 300 glyphs were on display in the group show “Woven” at The Arts Center of Greenwood in South Carolina.
Riley's TRANSCENDENCE PRESERVED (2017-2018) sculpture series was featured in shows such as "Amulets Ethereal" at the Barney Savage Gallery in New York.
As an advocate for artists of the Black African Diaspora, Riley has long utilized different portals to educate and illuminate. One venue has been writing about artists for publications geared, primarily, to the African American audience. She's penned profiles of Lyle Ashton Harris, Kara Walker, and Gary Simmons for "Ebony". Riley has also written about the Studio Museum in Harlem for "Essence", a series of columns for "UPTOWN" about art's rising stars, and a profile of Mickalene Thomas for aRUDE. In addition to writing an exploration of African American art in Jersey City, NJ, Riley also appeared on the cover of the Winter 2019 issue of "Jersey City Magazine" alongside her piece, "150 Bay Street: A Creative haven honors the Promise of the Powerhouse Arts District."