A poetic spirit: The enduring art of Kenneth Riley

Kenneth Riley's focus during the past three decades has been the life way, material culture and philosophies of native peoples, notably the Apache, Mandan and Plains tribes. The time period of his works is the era of initial contact between Native peoples and explorers such as Lewis and Clark, the U.S. Cavalry and the earliest pioneers. Riley's art is both a literal story of a landscape and its inhabitants, as well as timeless and often romantic commentary about the passions of people who lived, loved and fought one another as individuals, families, tribes, clans and nations.