DANNY RILEY

Biography

Danny Riley was the nephew of the renowned Aboriginal artist, Ginger Riley, who passed away in 2001.

Danny inherited Ginger’s old shack in Limmen Bight country south of Anrhem land. Living in Borroloola on the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Danny would travel to the remote shack. He found some paints and canvases and decided to try his hand.

His early paintings were rough but his themes from the beginning were strong. His totems of Stingray, Freshwater Cray and Barracuda were painted swirling in space often with mangrove trees, a lagoon, which was most certainly the Maria Lagoon from his uncles land, and a hill which given it’s prominence in most of his paintings was certainly important to him.

I first saw Danny’s paintings in early 2006 and saw the potential. I requested a group exhibition with other artists from Waralungku Artists in the gallery I was managing in Darling Harbor in Sydney.

This exhibition was a great success for Danny, something that surprised him. Following a trip to Borroloola later that year to organise a Solo exhibition, Danny became ill and died in early 2007.

The solo exhibition took place in 2008 in another gallery I was managing in Sydney, prior to us setting up Pandanus Gallery in Palm Cove in 2009.