Bridget Riley
Bridget Riley
Artist Biography
Bridget Riley is one of Britain's best-known living artists and acclaimed as one of the finest exponents of Optical Art. In 1961, she exhibited in the seminal New York show 'The Responsive Eye', organized by Victor Vasarely and in 1968 she was the first British contemporary painter and woman to win the Venice Biennale.
Riley spent much of her childhood in Cornwall where she was greatly affected by the landscape. She studied at Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art where she initially trained as a figurative artist but changed to Pointillism around 1958 and produced landscapes. Progressing from landscapes in the 1960's, Riley evolved an abstract style and visual vocabulary of shapes and colours exploring the dynamic effects of optical phenomena.
