RIK RITCHEY

"HOMOLOGIES" 

 

DUVAL CONTEMPORARY is pleased to announce the launch of its exhibition program hosted by THE RESIDENTS.

Bay area artist Rik Ritchey will inaugurate the program on October 3, 2017

with a private reception on October 7, 2017, from 5 to 8 PM.

 

The exhibition runs through December 2, 2017.

 

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Rik Ritchey received his MFA from Mills College in the early eighties working with Jay DeFeo and Ron Nagle. From early on, Ritchey’s work employed various mediums; wood, Polaroid, foam and paper, all exemplifying what it meant “to resist the hierarchy of the material.” His ongoing “Tissue” project is a series of paintings in polyurethane foam. The dimensionality of this material is thought of as an endodermis conducting ink, pigments, and paints throughout its interior by capillary action. What is seen on the surface is the accumulation of the pigment throughout the foam.

 

His latest series “Homologies,” are vertical works on paper that developed out of a recent practice of drawing with both hands simultaneously in a mirror fashion. The results appear as symmetrical forms that allude to the body or plants, to any number of references to our natural world. Each drawing is begun in the same fashion but results in entirely different renderings. Though often fantastically different from each other, these drawings all share the same homology, the same beginning, the same process resulting in forms that all stand on a central axis. Ritchey draws inspiration from the extraordinary world of bilateral imagery such as Rorschach and Bruce Conner’s ink blot drawings. There is a compelling resonance to this symmetry resulting from the mirroring movements of his hands and also reminiscent of his earlier totemic sculptures.

 

Rik Ritchey’s last solo exhibition at LIMN gallery was in 2009. His most recent work was presented in a group exhibition HERE II: What Cannot Be Said, curated by Natasha Boas at the Berkeley Art Center. Ritchey’s work is in private and museum collections around the country.