Biography

Gregory D. Ridley,Jr. was born in Smyrna, TN in 1925. In 1936, his family moved to Nashville, where he was educated in the city's public schools. After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he enrolled at Fisk University. He studied under the renowned Aaron Douglas, who remained a close friend and mentor until his death in 1979.

Ridley earned an undergraduate degree in art education from Tennessee State University and a master's degree in fine arts from the University of Louisville. Mr. Ridley was the first person of any color to receive this degree at the University of Louisville.

He has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a teacher, including faculty appointments to Alabama State University, Grambling State University, Tennessee State University, Fisk University, and City University of New York; there he served as the University's museum coordinator. After a second term of service at Fisk, during which time he also served as President Henry Ponder's special advisor on the arts, he returned to Tennessee State University.

He was the artist-in- residence at Morehouse College during the 1995-96 academic year, and he has conducted a number of workshops and seminars elsewhere. He served the Tennessee State Museum as a guest curator, organizing the acclaimed exhibition "Visions of My People: African-American Artists in Tennessee." He executed a major commission for Fisk: a pair of low-relief sculpted panels which now grace the entrance doors to the Van Vechten Gallery.

The panels, made possible by a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission, depict the individuals most intimately associated with the gallery: Alfred Stieglitz, collector and purveyor of modern art; his widow, painter Georgia O'Keefe, who donated the Stieglitz Collection to Fisk in 1949; Dr. Charles S. Johnson, the first African-American president of Fisk; Aaron Douglas, chairman of the art department at Fisk for more than thirty years; Pearl Creswell, the longtime, much admired curator of the gallery; and Carl Van Vechten, writer and photographer, who was instrumental in securing the gift of the Stieglitz Collection for Fisk. Ridley's work has been widely exhibited and collected. Locally, he has been featured in exhibits at the Tennessee State Museum, Cheekwood, the Nashville Artists' Guild, Fisk, and Tennessee State University, where his art is part of the permanent collection in the Brown-Daniel Library and the Hiram Van Gordon Art Gallery. In recent years, his work as also been seen at the J. B. Speed Museum, the Toledo Arts Center, and Morehouse College. His work is included in the collections of museums, corporations, and individuals throughout the United States.

His latest major work is "A Story of Nashville", located in Nashville's new, state-of-the art public library. Inside the Grand Reading Room, a series of 80 hammered copper repousse’ (frieze) panels, integrated within the tops of the bookshelves, forms a linear story of Nashville's history from its pre-settlement period to the present day. This project represents the largest number of pieces in a major work by the artist to date, and its historic journey promises to become a legacy for Nashville and its residents. The panels begin to the east, right of the main entrance to the reading room, and continue counterclockwise completely around the room, occupying sixteen alcoves.