NEW YORK – China Institute in America has announced the appointment of Charles A. Riley II, PhD, as the Director of China Institute Gallery, 100 Washington Street, in New York City. Most recently, he was the Director of the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, NY, from 2017 to 2023.
“We are delighted to have Charles A. Riley II, an accomplished veteran of the art world and a friend of China, to join our team. This is an exciting moment in our progress toward bringing exceptional exhibitions and programs into a new era as China Institute celebrates its 100th anniversary next year,” said George Geh, the C.E.O. of China Institute in America.
Dr. Riley has a long track record in the international art world as a museum director, curator, journalist, author, and professor. He has curated exhibitions in museums and galleries in Beijing, Taiwan, Berlin, Amsterdam, Lausanne, and throughout the New York area featuring works by Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, Renoir, Turner, Cezanne, de Kooning, Stella, Warhol, and Lichtenstein, with whom he worked on a monograph. He has worked with contemporary artists, including Yang Yongliang, Cao Jun, Han Qin, Christine Sun Kim, Pan Yu Liang, Wang Da Wei, Miya Ando, Idris Kahn, and many others.
At the Nassau County Museum of Art, he curated major exhibitions that were covered by The New York Times, Artnet, The New Yorker, CGTN, China Daily, and other outlets and expanded the number of works in the 145-acre sculpture garden. He curated the permanent installation of Western sculpture at the Chimei Museum in Taiwan. His latest book, Picasso in a New Light: Celebrating the Pablo Picasso Collection, 2024, will accompany a touring exhibition, adding to a list of 47 other books issued by leading art publishers including Abrams, Abbeville, Skira, and Rizzoli, many translated into Japanese, Arabic, French and Italian. Riley has written hundreds of articles and reviews as a journalist, first as a reporter at Time Inc. for Fortune magazine, then as the senior editor of Art & Auction magazine and as a critic for several magazines and online publications. He has been featured as a commentator on the art world on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CCTV, CGTN, BBC, and many local outlets.
Dr. Riley is well known in the world of Chinese art. He was a foreign expert at the Hebei Teachers’ University in Shijiazhuang in 1984-85, and has remained a frequent guest lecturer at universities and educational organizations in Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Nanjing, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Chengdu, Jinan, and other locales. He visits China regularly to teach and to recruit students for secondary schools and universities in the United States. He is married to Liu Ke Ming, a noted translator of Chinese poetry into English and a professor of linguistics at the City University of New York.
About China Institute in America
Founded in New York City in 1926 by American educators John Dewey, Paul Monroe, and Chinese scholars Hu Shi and Kuo Ping-Wen, China Institute in America is an internationally renowned U.S. nonprofit organization dedicated to deepening the world’s understanding of China through programs in art, business, cuisine, culture, and education. In 2026, China Institute in America will celebrate its 100-year anniversary. This Centennial marks a historic achievement, and ushers in an exciting and ambitious era.
About China Institute Gallery
China Institute Gallery is renowned for its intimate, first-class thematic exhibitions, which are accompanied by in-depth scholarly catalogues. Since 1966, the Gallery has presented more than 120 exhibitions showcasing both historical and contemporary works across a wide range of media and art forms. Covering 5,000 years of Chinese history from the Neolithic period to present day, China Institute Gallery is the only non-commercial exhibition space solely dedicated to Chinese art in New York and the United States. The Gallery’s commitment to education through catalogues and art programming makes Chinese art available to audiences far beyond the Gallery’s doors. China Institute Gallery will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2026, reaffirming the gallery’s leadership in landmark historical exhibitions while expanding the gallery’s commitment to the vibrant world of contemporary Chinese art.
China Institute in America is located at 100 Washington Street, New York, NY 10006. To learn more, please visit chinainstitute.org, LinkedIn or Instagram.
###
Press Contact:
Nicole Straus Public Relations
Nicole Straus, 917-744-1040, [email protected]
Margery Newman, [email protected], 212-475-0252
