Qiaira Riley is an interdisciplinary artist + cultural worker, raised on Chicago’s south-side and based in Philadelphia. She holds a dual B.A. in Black Studies and Studio Art from Lake Forest College, as well as an M.F.A in Socially Engaged Studio Art from Moore College of Art & Design. Her work has been shown across the United States including Woman Made Gallery in Chicago,IL; Cherry Street Pier, Paradigm Gallery, and Public Trust in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a co-founder and curator of 2.0, a collective collaborating with artists and organizations to curate free, experimental offerings for Black women and femmes. Her 2021 MFA thesis-turned-zine “How Tiffany Pollard Built the Internet: Representations of Simulacra, Virtuality, and Black women and femmes on the Internet and Its Art” is a part of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection. She hosts "Something You Can Feel," a contemporary Black art history podcast, that can be found on Apple and Spotify. She was the January 2024 Resident at Our House Culture Center, showcasing her debut solo show Beauty of the Week, a series of works created during her time as the 2023 Leeway Foundation X Fleisher Art Memorial Artist in Residence. From 2023-2024 , Qiaira was the community artist partner collaborating with The Friends of the Tanner House to curate a series of multi-generational arts programming uplifting the family and home of artist Henry O. Tanner and its urgent stabilization efforts. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Delaware in the Art History Department. You can find her CV here.