Home > Shop > Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley

Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. Op artworks are abstract, with many better-known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibrating patterns, or swelling or warping. Bridget Riley was a pioneer in the movement. Riley’s works present a great variety of geometric forms that produce sensations of movement or colour. In the early 1960s, her works were said to induce a variety of sensations in viewers, from seasickness to the feeling of sky diving.

Riley was born at Norwood, London, the daughter of a businessman. Her childhood was spent in Cornwall and Lincolnshire. Riley studied at Goldsmiths’ College and the Royal College of Art and worked briefly in advertising before transitioning to full-time artmaking. She has exhibited in London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, among many other cities. Her work belongs in the collections of institutions including Arts Council England, the Centre Pompidou, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tate, and the Stedelijk Museum and has fetched millions of dollars on the secondary market.