Duke Riley: What the Waves May Bring

June 11 – September 14, 2025

In What the Waves May Bring, artist Duke Riley transforms salvaged plastic collected from beaches and waterways into intricate mosaics and sculptures inspired by maritime history and folk traditions. Using his background as a tattoo artist, sailor, and storyteller, Riley blends fact, fiction, and myth to explore the environmental and cultural impact of consumer waste on our oceans.

The exhibition features finely created artworks that refer back to nineteenth-century nautical history and maritime crafts—such as scrimshaw, fishing lures, and sailors’ valentines—but are made from contemporary debris: toothbrushes, bottle caps, tampon applicators, vapes, and other plastic detritus. Through these unexpected materials, Riley offers a striking commentary on corporate greed, ocean degradation, and the stories we choose to preserve.

A Boston native and longtime New Yorker, Riley finds inspiration in nautical lore, tattoo flash, and overlooked histories. His work speaks to individual responsibility, collective memory, and the urgent need to protect the natural world before plastic remnants are the only artifacts we leave behind.