Jul 6, 2023

Why we’re fascinated: Because Riley filled the Brooklyn Museum with trash. Scouring New York’s polluted shores for lipstick tubes, tampon applicators and vape pens, Riley crafts repurposed fishing lures, intricate mosaics and politically charged scrimshaw depictions, making him among Big Plastic’s most vocal crusaders. His modern-maritime work has recently infiltrated Boston’s central library and can be acquired via permanent ink at the self-proclaimed garbage man, artist and thief ’s tattoo parlor in Greenpoint. In the name of Riley’s current exhibit? “DEATH TO THE LIVING, Long Live Trash!”

 — Colin Kirkland