Rachele Riley is an artist, graphic designer, and educator passionate about poetic, empathetic, and research-based approaches to multimedia art and visual communication. Her work explores representations of conflict; relationships between space, language, beings, environment; and engages the material trace and organizational systems of archives. She is interested in different connections, data, and phenomena, and her work takes the forms of letter form design, collage, visual mappings, and motion/interactive imaging. Rachele has presented, published, and exhibited her work in national and international settings—at Artist Replete Gallery in Chicago, IL (2024); at 1708 Gallery’s InLight21 in Richmond, VA (2021); at Pratt Manhattan Gallery in New York (2019); the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, NC (2018); the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, England (2013); and at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver, Canada (2014), among other venues. Her project, The Evolution of Silence (launched 2013), which explores the impact of forty-one years of post-WWII nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site, was named an Official Honoree in NetArt by The Webby Awards (2014) and recognized by AIGA Philadelphia Design Awards (2017), and is included in the exhibition and book, Ambiguous Territory: Architecture, Landscape and the Postnatural (Actar Publisher, 2022). Her graphic design client work has been recognized by Communication Arts Magazine (Typography Annual) (2018), Print Magazine’s Design Regional (2008), and featured in the book, Motion Design (Woolman, 2004). She served on the Board of Directors for DesignInquiry from 2013–2015, co-framing the DI:DesignCity project in Detroit, MI in 2014. She works collaboratively with Daniel McCafferty and Joshua Singer as part of Different Data on a project that explores design ecologies in cities, and is a member of the Spring 2026 Design Writing Group affiliated with Design Incubation. In July 2025, she participated in L’Internationale Museum of the Commons’ Summer School: Landscape (post) Conflict—an arts research assembly at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) in Dublin, Ireland. Born and raised in Washington, DC (USA), Rachele holds an MFA in Design/Visual Communication from Virginia Commonwealth University, a vordiplom in Communication Design from the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle (Germany), and a BS in Studio Art from New York University. She is currently Associate Professor of New Media and Design at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She lives in Durham, NC with her family and three cats.
CV [Contact me for my full CV: rachele at racheleriley dot com]
EDUCATION
MFA Design/Visual Communication, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, 2005
Vordiplom Communication Design, Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule, Halle, Germany, 2001
BS Studio Art, New York University, New York, NY, 1994
AWARDS
Finalist/Alternate Selectee, Fulbright-Glasgow Distinguished Scholar Award, 2025
Award of Excellence Typography, Communication Arts, 2018
Philadelphia Design Award, AIGA, 2017
Work Study Award, Penland School of Craft, 2016
Official Honoree in NetArt, The Webby Awards, 2014
Digital Imagery Award, DigitalGlobe Foundation, 2012
Design Regional Issue, Print Magazine, 2008
Outstanding MFA Student in Design Award, VCU, 2005
Travel Awards, VCU to Doha, Qatar and Berlin, Germany, 2004
Teaching Assistantship, VCU, 2004–2005
Graduate Studies Fellowship, VCU, 2003–2004
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), Greensboro, NC, Associate Professor of New Media and Design, 2023–present
UNCG, Assistant Professor of New Media and Design, 2017–2023
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, 2014–2017
The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, 2009–2014
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, 2007–2009
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, Administrative Director / Assistant Professor of Kinetic Imaging, 2005–2007
EXHIBITIONS
Artist Replete Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2024
Art Produce Gallery, Posters of Optimism, San Diego, CA, 2022
1708 Gallery’s InLight 2021, Richmond, VA, 2021
2021, Marking Time, Horace Williams House (with Susan Finer), Chapel Hill, NC
Acid Rain, Attic 506, Chapel Hill, NC, 2019
DesignInquiry: Futurespective, Institute of Contemporary Art, MECA, Portland, ME, 2019
Another Potato Chip Weekend, Gallery Oneoneone Annex, Carrboro, NC, 2019
Ambiguous Territory [traveling], Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca, NY, 2019
Black Hole/Atomic City, Sanitary Tortilla Factory, Albuquerque, NM, 2019
Ambiguous Territory [traveling], Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NY, 2019
Digital Disobedience, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 2018
Cucalorus Film Festival, Wilmington, NC, 2018
Ambiguous Territory [traveling], University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 2018
Ambiguous Territory: Architecture, Landscape, and the Postnatural, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 2017
Data Materialities, SIGGRAPH 2016 Art Gallery, Anaheim, CA, 2016
Artifact and Process, Weeks Gallery, Jamestown, NY, 2016
Different Data Detroit+Stockholm, NORDES 2015, Stockholm, Sweden (with Joshua Singer and Daniel McCafferty), 2015
Different Data Detroit, Depe Space/MOCAD, Detroit, MI (with Joshua Singer, Daniel McCafferty, and Patricio Davila), 2014
Acting in Translation, SIGGRAPH 2014 Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (curated by Basak Senova), 2014
Praxis and Poetics, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, 2013
Art in the Air, PECO Crown Lights, Philadelphia, PA, 2010
Art in Academia, Space 301, Mobile, AL, 2009
Media X,1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA, 2008
Overload Virtual Art Collection, Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Athens, GA, 2008
Paperwork In, On, and Of Paper IV, Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO, 2008
Gallery 400, Pathogeographies: Or Other People’s Baggage, Chicago, IL, 2007
Titles: An Exhibition of Artists’ Book Works, Balfour Books, Toronto, Canada, 2007
The Drawing Room, Fine Arts Gallery VCU, Richmond, VA, 2007
A Wander Beyond, La Cathedrale, Dublin, Ireland, 2006
RESIDENCIES
L’Internationale Museum of the Commons/Summer School: Landscape (Post) Conflict, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) & National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin, Ireland, 2025
DesignInquiry DEPE Space, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), Detroit, MI, 2014
DesignInquiry NoQuo, Vinalhaven, ME, 2015
DesignInquiry Station, Vinalhaven, ME, 2013
DesignInquiry Design Cities Berlin, Germany, 2012
DesignInquiry Make/DO, Vinalhaven, ME, 2011
Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Amherst, VA, 2007
Kimmel Harding Nelson, Nebraska City, NE, 2006
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Ambiguous Territory exhibition catalog, Actar Publishers, 2022
AIGA Frontier conference proceedings (with Joshua Singer), 2019
Displacements journal. Reality/Fiction, Vol.2, pg 50–54, GIPC Cultural Landscape Research Group, Madrid, Spain, 2018
Design Cities: Berlin, DesignInquiry publisher, 2016
Reflections on Research through Design, Studies in Material Thinking: Visual/Textual, Vol 13, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand, 2015
Cumulus: The Virtuous Circle, conference proceedings (with Joshua Singer), 2015
Leonardo, Journal of Arts, Sciences and Technology, SIGGRAPH 2014, Volume 47, Number 4, 2014
Praxis and Poetics: Research Through Design, conference proceedings, 2013
Make/Do, DesignInquiry publisher, 2013
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
Artist talk, Imagination and Collage panel, College Art Association Conference, Chicago, IL, 2024
1708 Gallery-In Light, 2021
Southeastern College Art Conference, 2020
AIGA Design Educators Conference, Frontier, Bozeman, MT, 2016
VCU, Department of Graphic Design, Richmond, VA (with Joshua Singer and Daniel McCafferty), 2016
SUNY Fredonia, Fredonia, NY, 2016
Weeks Gallery, Gallery talk ‘Artifact and Process,’ Jamestown, NY, 2016
Design Colloquium, College Art Association Conference, Washington, D.C., 2016
Mapping Ephemeralities, Art & Cartography, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2015
DesignInquiry NO QUO, Vinalhaven, ME, 2015
Live interview at Cumulus, EuDesignRadio, Milan, Italy (with Joshua Singer), 2015
Cumulus: The Virtuous Circle, Milan, Italy (with Joshua Singer), 2015
GIS Day—Discovering the World through GIS, Champaign, IL, 2014
Re: the City, Humanities Center Symposium, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 2014
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 2014
SIGGRAPH 2014 Art Gallery Talks, Vancouver, Canada, 2014
New Paradigms in Teaching and Learning, AICAD Symposium, Baltimore, MD, 2013
Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA, 2013
Praxis and Poetics: Research Through Design, Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, 2013
DesignInquiry Station, Vinalhaven, ME, 2013
Remaking Research, AICAD Symposium, Vancouver, Canada, 2012
DesignInquiry/Design City: Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2012
Texas State University San Marcos, San Marcos, TX, 2012
DesignInquiry: Make/Do, Vinalhaven, ME, 2011
College Art Association Conference, Chicago, IL, 2010
College Art Association Conference | ARTspace, Los Angeles, CA, 2009
Southeastern College Art Conference, (presented with Stephanie Hutin), New Orleans, LA, 2008
SELECTED CLIENTS
Preservation Durham / College of Visual and Performing Arts, UNCG / Ideas on Purpose, New York, NY / Leah Sobsey, Durham, NC / Tungsten Branding, Asheville, NC / Sheryl Oring, Greensboro, NC / Barbara Campbell Thomas, Greensboro, NC / Revolve/MAP, Asheville, NC / The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA / College of Arts and Architecture, University of North Carolina Charlotte / Ron Johnson, Richmond, VA / Stephen Vitiello, Richmond, VA / Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA / Graduate Artists Association, VCU, Richmond, VA / Department of Kinetic Imaging, VCU, Richmond, VA
TECHNICAL SKILL
Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, WordPress, Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Office, Keynote, Google Workspace
Intermediate-advanced proficiency in Python, Drawbot, HTML, CSS, Figma, P5.js, Processing, Jupyter Notebook
LANGUAGES
English (native)
German (intermediate-advanced proficiency)
French (intermediate)