JOERILEY.WORK




joriley@ucsd.edu
@pleasedontfront
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Photo: Natalie Conn

  Joe Riley is an artist, historian, and Ph.D. candidate at UC San Diego Visual Arts in a joint environmental research program with Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. 

  Joe’s research has recently been supported by the Getty Scholars Program, a UCSD Rita L. Atkinson Fellowship, and the UC Humanities Research Institute. His dissertation, Fixing the Sea: Case Studies Toward A Critical Environmental History of Ocean Art and Science since 1970, foregrounds and critically examines histories and practices of interaction between artists, oceanographers, and marine life situated within California’s university-military-research complex.

  From 2020–2025 Joe has been a participating artist and co-curator for the Pacific Standard Time exhibition Embodied Pacific, featuring projects by thirty artists working with researchers in laboratories, field sites, and archives in Southern California and the Pacific Islands. 

  Previously, he was an Ocean Fellow with TBA21-Academy and participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program. Joe holds a BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art and has taught at UC San Diego, Cal State San Marcos, Stevens Institute of Technology, and The Cooper Union.
WRITING & SPEAKING





PUBLICATIONS & PRESS


2026Cartwright, Lisa, Nan Renner, Joe Riley, eds. Oceanographic Art and Science: Navigating the Pacific (Bloomsbury, London: 2025). [forthcoming]
2024Review of King, Richard J.. Ocean Bestiary: Meeting Marine Life from Abalone to Orca to Zooplankton. H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. March, 2024. [PDF] 
2023“Militarized Seaweeds,” in Holding Sway: Seaweeds and the Politics of Form, a special edition of UCHRI Foundry, eds. Melody Jue and Maya Weeks, Spring 2023. [link] 
2022“Density Gradient Chemostat for Adapted Laboratory Evolution,” co-inventor with Bowman Lab, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, US Provisional Patent Application, No. 63/344,498, May 2022.
2021“The Enigma of Waves,” in Oceans Rising, ed. Daniela Zyman, Sternberg Press, May 2021.[link]  
2020“The Pencil of Nature: Tracing Intertidal Media through the Development of Early Photography,” in tba: Journal of Art, Media, and Visual Culture, issue #2, University of Western Ontario, December 2020. [PDF] 

“Ocean Fellowship: The Chain Interview,” eds. Markus Reymann and Daniela Zyman, in Ocean Archive, TBA-21 Academy, 2020. https://ocean-archive.org/view/1464. 


2019“Wastestreaming.” Urban Omnibus, Architectural League of NY, October 2, 2019. http://urbanomnibus.net/2019/10/wastestream/.

“Country End Near, Country End Far,” in FREE TRADE OR ELSE, ed. Laurie Robins, South London Gallery, May 2019.[PDF] 
2018“the enigma of...”, artist’s essay in Unbag Magazine, Vol. 2, Winter, 2018. [PDF]

2017“Interview: Future Farmers.” Contemporary Art Stavanger (blog), May 5, 2017. https://www.contemporaryartstavanger.no/interview-future-farmers/.
2014ZAHOPLENNYA Catalog, Izolyatsia Platform for Cultural Initiatives, Kyiv, Ukraine, Summer 2017.https://izolyatsia.org/en/project/zahoplennya.
2013“Parallel Cases: a story,” article and interview with Joe Riley and Audrey Snydey, Boneshaker Magazine, July 2013.

2012“Parallel Cases,” article and interview with Joe Riley and Audrey Snydey, written by Caroline Frayser, Treadlie Magazine, December 2012.

“Parallel Cases,” Joe Riley and Audrey Snyder, letterpress printed artist book, edition of 50.


CONFERENCES & SYMPOSIA


2025Keynote: “Ocean Art Practice & Critical Environmental History: Visualizing Algae & Ballast as Passengers of Change,” Blue Visions: Thinking with Ocean Ecologies across the Arts and Humanities, Center for Environmental Futures, Oregon Humanities Center, University of Oregon, May 2025.

Displacement & Reparation: Climate, Labor, & Migration Justice Symposium, co-organizer and panelist, presented by UCSD Nature, Space, and Politics, February 2025.

2024“Ocean Art History and Critical Infrastructure Studies: Visualizing Liquid Ballast,” IN THE BURROW: Critical Approaches to Infrastructure, UC Irvine, February, 2024,

Ocean Art History and Critical Ecological Practice: Visualizing Algae as a Passenger of Change, Getty Graduate Symposium, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, February 2024. 

2023 “Passengers of Change: Co-laboratories for Ocean Art & Science,” When Species Travel Panel, organized by Jonathan Galka and Anthony Medrano, Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) Meeting, Honolulu, HI, November 2023.

Horizon Seaweed panel and workshop; co-sponsored by UCSD Nature, Space & Politics Group and Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation; La Jolla, CA, June 2, 2023.

2022Beall Center Art + Ecologies Series: Ocean Research-Creation Panel; Organized by Lauren Lees and Raechel Jasmine Hill; Moderated by Jesse Colin Jackson; Sponsored by UCI Illuminations, UC Irvine, April 11, 2022.

“Paraschools & the Free Cooper Union Movement,” Visiting Designer Lecture, Higher Institute for Artistic Industries (ISAI), Urbino, Italy.

2021“Canoes, Conservation, and Computation,” Getty PST Ocean Prototype Nights Panel, UCSD Design Lab,San Diego, CA, Noevemebr 18, 2021.
2020“Tracing Intertidal Media through the Development of Early Photography,” Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Conference: The Production of Space and its Interdisciplinary Study, April, 2020.

“The Engima Of Waves,” part of Soluble Geographies of the Equatorial Pacific, contributor and panelist, TBA-21 Academy Ocean Space, June 17, 2020

Introductory notes and facilitation for Finding Perspective: Looking through the waters of the North Atlantic, contributor and panelist, TBA-21 Academy Ocean Space, June 10, 2020.

Conversation with Yto Barrada and Omar Berrada, Mnemonic Ocean: Monsoons, Memory, and Atlantic Movements, contributor and panelist, TBA-21 Academy Ocean Space, June 25, 2020.


2018“Wastestreaming: Convening the Commons,” presentation and panel discussion with Freshkills Field R/D, Queens Museum International, Queens, NY

“Waste Time: Breakdown, Decay, and Regeneration,” 8th Floor Artist Talk and Panel Discussion, Rubin Foundation, New York, NY

“Wastestreaming,” Open Engagement Conference Panel, Queens Museum, NY

“Freshkills Park Showcase & Panel Presentation,” New Art Dealers Alliance, New York, NY
2015“Radio Chain,” Panel: Ukraine Report, with Clemens Poole and Olena Chervonik, 266w25st, New York

RECORDED PRESENTATIONS




Ocean Art History and Critical Ecological Practice: Visualizing Algae as a Passenger of Change, Getty Graduate Symposium, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA, February 2, 2024, 00:48:00 - 01:12:50. [link]




“The Engima Of Waves,” part of Soluble Geographies of the Equatorial Pacific, contributor and panelist, TBA-21 Academy Ocean Space, June 17, 2020, 01:00:25 - 01:27:40. [link]





Introductory notes and facilitation for Finding perspective: Looking through the waters of the North Atlantic, contributor and panelist, TBA-21 Academy Ocean Space, June 10, 2020, 00:00:18 - 07:00:20. [link]





Conversation with Yto Barrada and Omar Berrada, Mnemonic Ocean: Monsoons, Memory, and Atlantic Movements, contributor and panelist, TBA-21 Academy Ocean Space, June 25, 2020, 01:01:15 - 01:50:11. [link]