IN SERVICE OF THE WELLSPRING

Keith Riley and MarSha Yi Robinson

Lane Meyer Projects is pleased to present In Service of the Wellspring, a two-person exhibition by Keith Riley and MarSha Yi Robinson

March 21, 2025 - May 11, 2025

Opening Reception: March 21, 8pm to late

Lane Meyer Project is proud to present In Service of the Wellspring, a two-person exhibition featuring Brooklyn-based artist Keith Riley and Denver-based artist MarSha Yi Robinson. Works on paper take center stage, with Riley and Robinson entering from opposing standpoints of intentional looseness and precision rendering, respectively.

Keith Riley’s work hones distinct pattern and color motifs while reflecting how he views the world: raw, abundant, and occasionally at odds, with a deep undercurrent of emotion. Curiously, Riley executes his linework with his non-dominant (left) hand, which allows him the ability to view the work being created from a removed standpoint - as an outsider or a third party. Through this dissonance, his scaffold-like pattern and bright color repertoire represent complex ideas such as the social and psychological burden of development and gentrification. Through his bold lines, symmetrical geometric lattices, and handbuilt frames made from construction materials, Riley symbolically demonstrates organization.

Freedom of imagination meets its soulmatch in the skilled hand of MarSha Yi Robinson. Through her depiction of flora, careful linework, and saturated color fields, her new body of work created for In Service of the Wellspring allows the viewer moments of pause between fantastical blooms. A delight and a wonder to view, much of Robinson’s previous work features meticulous detail, with stems and stamen swirling and intertwining, but always with a near-symmetrical, visual logic. Departing slightly into what she deems minimal compositions, Robinson uses architectural elements blended with floral ink drawings in layered paper works, creating a balance of feminine and masculine energies, animate and inanimate, constructed vs organic.

In harmonious conversation, the works of Keith Riley and MarSha Yi Robinson play to their individual strengths in In Service of the Wellspring. Where Robinson relishes in playful yet controlled lines, Riley embraces an experimental, lyrical mode of left-handed drawing. In their own visual languages, each finds compositional and conceptual balance - one where fountains overflow, otherworldly flowers thrive, and human intervention results in abundance.

Written by Marsha Mack

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MarSha Yi Robinson is a self-taught artist who works & lives in Denver, CO. Her artwork—hand-drawn and primarily using India ink—combines both floral and geometric structures. The contrast between the floral and geometric produces a dynamic tension that troubles binary relationships, such as feminine/masculine, hard/soft, and organic/synthetic. In doing so, her paintings challenge commonplace notions of floral beauty, expanding botanical aesthetics and concepts into more diverse and nuanced territory.

Keith Riley attended Cooper Union School of Art and earned his BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1999. Before focusing on drawing and sculpture, he worked across disciplines, including graphic design, fabrication, computer programming, and photography. A founding member of the interdisciplinary arts collective Lansing-Dreiden, he also served as the lead graphic designer for Matthew Barney. His work explores transformation and structure, balancing precision with organic movement.