Ron Rizk’s paintings depict the intimate personal history of locales from his life. Ethereal and yet grounded in reality, the paintings tell the stories of very real places as seen through the artist’s memories. Highly accurate in some aspects and imagined in others, the paintings exist in a space between reality and the surreal.
Rizk constructs the architecture in paper - simplifying the forms to capture their essential shapes. The impermanence and fragility of the structures echo the impermanence of memory and of human civilization. Although they are devoid of human figures, the paintings are primarily about the impact of industry and human interventions in the landscape. The scenes are rendered in an idealized and poetically soft color palette but these landscapes are rich in complicated stories - industries that came and went, dreams that might or might not be realized, places steeped in history.
Risk is creating worlds for himself and for the viewer - we are drawn in to the minute details of the foliage, to the peek through the windows, to wonder at the light. There is a reverence for the spaces that is palpable in the these paintings - a fascination and a wonder and a deep appreciation.
Ron Rizk was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He received a diploma from the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art, his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and his MFA from the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana. He is a Professor of Painting and Chair of Studio Arts at the University of Southern California Roski School of Fine Arts.
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In this new series, Lindsey Warren continues to describe the landscapes of Los Angeles. Inspired by the vast skies and shifting light over the epic vistas of Southern California, Warren is simultaneously fascinated with and concerned by the changing weather patterns that shape these views. Snow on the San Gabriel Mountains, a green-tinted sky, or the saturated light of twilight are unexpected yet somehow also familiar and beg a moment of reflection. As the parent of young children, Warren’s relationship with these spaces has shifted. What were simply breathtaking vistas previously now inspire a sense of responsibility to protect the spaces she depicts and the people who inhabit them - these paintings are detailed meditations on the conflicting emotions of concern and wonder.
Warren’s distinctive painting style is a representational depiction of places she encounters. She closely observes in person in addition to taking reference photos, later comparing the photos to her memory of the place. The resulting paintings are interpretations of these memories with details added and subtracted throughout her painting process. Warren uses dramatic color changes and a deliberate simplification of details to create records of personally significant places and to capture the transformative nature of time. Warren seeks to evoke the essence of the city through aesthetics that are difficult to communicate with words but are collectively felt by those who know it well. Notably, Warren takes very few liberties with the architecture as these are intended to be portraits of these places. The resulting unique compositions are simultaneously stylized and real.
Lindsey Warren was born and raised in Los Angeles. She received her BFA (2004) and MFA (2008) in Painting from Boston University, and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from Brandeis University (Waltham, MA). Her work as been exhibited throughout the United States with recent shows in Los Angeles, New York City, and Laguna Beach. Lindsey has been a studio artist in Chashama’s Workspace Program in NYC and a participant in the Bronx Museum’s AIM program. Her public works and murals have been installed in Boston and New York City. She lives and works in Los Angeles.
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