Featured Artist October 2016

Rik Ritchey

Rik Ritchey is an active BAC Member and was recently featured in the exhibition WHAT CANNOT BE SAID juried by independent curator Natasha Boas. Ritchey lives in Emeryville and studied art at Washington State University, earning his MFA from Mills College in Oakland, CA. His work has been most recently exhibited at NIAD and Richmond Art Center in Richmond, Krowswork Gallery in Oakland, and MarinMOCA in Novato. His sculpture is currently featured at Filoli Gardens in Woodside and he has done public art projects for the cities of Emeryville, Bakersfield, and Busan, Korea. His art is in the permanent collection of the Crocker Art Museum, San Jose Museum, and Oakland Museum among others. 

Artist Statement

[excerpt]

I like to think about circumstances I can set up that will short circuit my picture making processes. This includes using materials in unorthodox ways, but it also includes the knowledge of the sources of those materials. This exploration I have with materials and processes also extends beyond the completed painting where I reintroduce a new structure onto or into the painting. For example language can be transcribed into code so that it becomes an abstract pattern. This pattern can then be sewn into the very substance of the painting.

There is usually a tension in my work between the materials chosen and their processes, and the so called information that gets interjected. By giving various forms of information and language a visual form I am able to expand on my own expressive language.

Click Here to visit the artist's website.