JAMES RIELLY ‘TŶ HYLL’

TEN is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by James Rielly, his first as part of the gallery stable, and his first in Wales in over a decade. Rielly is one of the notable YBA’s of the 90s and his work is part of collections such as Tate, Saatchi and the National Museum of Wales, he grew up in Holyhead and now lives in France and exhibits internationally

Tŷ Hyll includes a series of oil on canvas paintings, heavily gessoed and delicately painted. Akin to religious frescos, we see familiar and reoccurring motifs – some of these present throughout Rielly’s career – his own-made iconography offering modern-day parables

These paintings appear as a snapshot of an ongoing narrative, a ‘still’ of a fantastically mysterious and inherently dark folk tale. They tread the edge of the bizarre and the familiar with no obvious context, simultaneously threatening and cutesy, swaying between tragedy and comedy, and landing squarely in the wholly relevant. All are intimate in scale and draw in the viewer – at times the subject meets our gaze as we look, others hide completely behind a mask, playful yet unnerving

Any recognisable figures are boys – typically boisterous and physical –  on the cusp of awkward adolescence. The painting ‘Saint Cybi and Saint Seiriol Together in Silent Prayer’ depict – presumably the 6th century Welsh saints – two boys in fake white beards, more scheming brothers than pious pilgrims. We approach the work with our own cultural points of reference, looking for context and ‘hooks’ to understand. The burning house of ‘Croeso i Gymru’ is a comment on the actions of Meibion Glyndŵr and their destruction of holiday homes in Rielly’s own home county – is it not? 

Humour is the prevalent note, and Rielly uses that gallows humour as a common tool to bring us in. The overarching theme here is that of us humans, our human condition and the world we have destroyed for ourselves. Through pointing at the ridiculousness of it all and mock-laughing at the absurdity of modern life, Rielly’s sugar-coated satire gives us that buffer we need to look at ourselves without loosing hope – and to hopefully learn our lesson. He offers us a coping mechanism – if we don’t laugh, we’ll cry

Rielly grew up in Holyhead, North Wales and now lives in France as a professor at Beaux-Arts de Paris. He was part of the London art scene of the 90s as one of the notable YBA's - with his work included in Saatchi's infamous 'Sensation' exhibition in 1997, alongside artists such as Tracy Emin, Damien Hirst and Chris Ofili. Rielly’s artwork is part of notable collections such as Tate [UK], Saatchi Collection [UK], Fonds National d’Art Contemporain [France], Wurth Collection [Spain] and National Museum of Wales [Cymru]. He exhibits internationally, with recent solo shows in Taiwan [2024], Belgium [2024], Spain [2023], Mexico [2023], Iceland [2022], Germany [2022]