EXHIBITIONS & NEWS
Latest news and exhibition information
NEWSLETTER ON SUBSTACK
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SPRING SHOW AND OPEN STUDIO
My fellow studio mates and I are opening our doors to the public on Saturday, April 16th from 11 AM to 3 PM. This is one of only two major events we offer each year and do not participate in Greenville's First Fridays art crawl. If you want to see behind the curtain, this is a rare opportunity to do so.
Each of us are presenting new work, and I truly excited to offer a first look at my new direction. It truly feels like the culmination of everything I've been exploring since 2019; synthesized into a single expression. I'm incorporating light as a medium for the first time since my copper days back in the late 1990s. The work in the studio feels fresh, alive, and authentic, and I cannot wait to share it.
BRAND NEW NEWSLETTER
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MONUMENTAL - A VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
I'm pleased to announce my inclusion in the online group show, "Monumental", curated by Sergio Gomez. I will provide a live link once the show opens.
I love the concept; artists were asked to submit small works that will then be manipulated digitally to appear grand in scale. Playing with scale and proportion is something that is very important to me.
DREAM BIG
This time of year feels like an unravelling; the falling leaves offering a hint of death that gives way to the renewal of spring. In important ways this has always been a quiet period for me in the studio. I continue to go, of course, but the work I tend do around this time of year inevitably is more for me than anyone else.
Lately I've been wanting to go big. Not just big, monumental. Epic. Heroic. The current studio space makes that difficult to say the least. But I can conceptualize; I can dream.
Whatever the holidays mean to you, and no matter how you experience them, give yourself permission to take care of yourself. We've all earned a bit respite.
Press Release:
Christopher Rico returns to black and white painting after a few years of exploring color. What is different in this series from previous explorations is its murkiness and looseness, mired in something cosmic, metaphysical, and philosophical.
For this body of work Rico uses oversized calligraphy brushes on Yupo paper. He laid out long sheets on the floor and masked off dimensions for what would become separate sheets. Many of the eventual works were painted together as one in order to preserve single and repetitive strokes that materialized as part of his daily meditations. This physical meditation resulted in artifacts of gesture allowing subconscious imagery to emerge freely as though they were born from the depths--where a physical entity’s relationship to gravity and environment is different than for lifeforms on the surface.
The theme of creation and destruction being inversions rather than opposites has long fascinated and influenced Rico's artistic practice. He marries the formal with the emotive in ways that manifest as dramatic, beautiful, haunting, and visceral. Materials are evident; the process feels hidden, even elusive. This sense of mystery supports the internal mythologies that develop within the work; dragons, leviathans, deep fields of space that reference the divine and the sacred, emerging like shadows flickering on the cavern wall. A single stroke across a canvas or a page translates as a living thing, full of energy and life force yet completely non-representational.
Rico states, "I am naturally an introspective person, but the isolation of last year caused me to go much deeper. We are all seeking some way to understand the past year. Like many, I feel that I am coming up for air after a long time submerged. This is fertile ground for myth and stories; for the mysterious, the awe-inspiring, the provocative, and even the confrontational. I am always pursuing the means to communicate these themes visually."
INTERVIEW ON SHOUTOUT ATL
I sit down with folks from Shoutout ATL for a chat about art. (photo credit Will Crooks, 2020)
https://shoutoutatlanta.com/meet-christopher-rico-visual-artist-painter/
AT HOME MAGAZINE, SUMMER ISSUE
"Ritual Work"
Inspired by calligraphy, Christopher Rico offers a conversation on canvas
Christopher Rico's paintings feel like an invitation to a more in-depth conversation about what it means to be human. The deep blacks painted in great swoops and arc with a Chinese calligraphy brush float in luminescent washes, lending an aesthetic that feels both new yet rooted.
read article here
COSMIC ALCHEMY AT LICHTUNDFIRE GALLERY
Group exhibition at Lichtundfire, in New York City. Show runs through March 31. Two curator walk throughs and a panel discussion at the end of the run.
OYE' STUDIOS AND SOTERIA AT WORK
Oye' is the official partner for Soteria at Work's fall fundraiser. Each of the artists (myself included) will be producing original artwork for the art exhibition on October 25th, 2024. Prints will be available for sale with 100% of proceeds going to Soteria. 50% of my sales of original artwork that evening will go to Soteria.
Soteria at Work uses deconstruction & woodworking to create jobs & prevent recidivism. The theme of their fall fundraiser is "Letters from Prison" and will include readings and performances in addition to the art exhibition. Please come and support this organization and buy art!