Riley Rouse is a sculptor and multimedia artist based in Kansas City, MO. She earned her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2023. Her work explores the emotional connections we form with everyday objects, using ceramics, satire, and scale to investigate how we ascribe meaning and value to the materials around us. Through her practice, Riley examines art and craft through the lens of psychology, revealing how objects, both mundane and significant, shape our emotional lives.
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Leaning into her affinity for collecting, sorting, and obsessing over objects, Riley recontextualizes familiar materials and symbols to explore themes of commodification and value. Her pieces—often playful, sometimes satirical—can be personal but also resonate with universal human experiences. From frustration and grief to strength, intimacy, and desire, her work captures a wide emotional spectrum, inviting reflection on the psychological weight that everyday objects can carry.
Education
2023 - BFA - Kansas City Art Institute - Kansas City, MO
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​Solo Exhibitions
2020 — Sketch Archive - Bixler 108 Performance and Listening Room, Unionville, MO
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Group Exhibitions
2024 — Keepsake — Holsum Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2023 — The Door Is Always Open — Vulpes Bastille, Kansas City, MO
2023 — Another Kind of Time — H&R Block Space, Kansas City, MO
2023 — That Wasn’t My Chair After All — Kansas City Art Institute Sculpture Dept., Kansas City, MO
2022-23 — Out in the Open — Kansas City Art Institute Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2022 — Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You — Kansas City Art Institute Sculpture Department, Kansas City, MO
2022 — Tilted Arc — Fat Matt's Vortex, Kansas City, KS
2021 — The Reckoning — Kansas City Art Institute Sculpture Department, Kansas City, MO
2021 — Ways of Seeing — Kansas City Art Institute Photography Department, Kansas City, MO
2020 — Out of the Dark — Kansas City Art Institute Photography Department, Kansas City, MO
2019 — A World, Not Our Own — Kansas City Art Institute Foundations, Kansas City, MO
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Grants and Awards
2023 — BFA Excellence Award — Kansas City Art Institute
2022 — Mckeown Grant
2021-22 —Byron and Marilyn Schutz Scholarship
2020-2023 —Spring President’s List, Kansas City Art Institute
2019-2022 — Fall President’s List, Kansas City Art Institute
2019-23 — Kansas City Art Institute’s President’s Cabinet Scholarship
2018 — Nelson Atkins Museum of Art Photo Scholar, Kansas City, MO