Rodney Ripps is an American conceptual artist, painter, and sculptor. Ripps is most known for the textural density, heavy layering of materials, and heightened canvases in his work, often produced with high volumes of oil paint and incorporation of artificial leaves and metals, among other materials.
Biography
Ripps was born in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Sol Michael and Anne Ripps. Ripps' father owned and operated a dry cleaning service in Manhattan, New York. Ripps graduated from Andrew Jackson High School in Cambria Heights, Queens, New York. He is an alumnus of both Hunter College and York College. Ripps rose to prominence in the 1970s. In 1977, Ripps participated in his first group exhibition, "Painting 75/76/77" at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. Ripps was an affiliate of Andy Warhol's, posing for a series of Polaroid photographs shot by the latter. Ripps was also mentioned in Warhol's journals and appeared as a guest on the talk show Andy Warhol's TV Early in his career, Ripps worked in construction as a source of supplemental income. Ripps' illustration, "Rosette", was present in the Whitney Museum's 1979 Biennial event. In 1979, Ripps married designer and academic, Helene Verin in the latter's hometown of Chicago, Illinois. He is the father of conceptual artist, Ryder Ripps
Style and Critical Reception
In Culture
Ripps' work has been tethered to a variety of American artistic movements, most notably neo-expressionism and ornamentalism. This is, in part, the result of Ripps' continuous incantation of nature in his work. In a 1979 review in ArtForum, art critic Donald B. Kuspit attempted to term Ripps' work as a "Cosmetic Transcendentalism". This terminology defined Ripps' work as a self-conscious form of transcendentalism that, through vibrancy of colors, scale, and textural variety, embrace " its own cosmetic character, and which is an expression of a theatrical ambition" of the contemporary artistic landscape. Ripps' paintings are often supplemented with artificial leaves made of linen, often bound together and worked over heavily with thick layers of oil paint. Ripps' work has retrospectively been defined by art historians as an unspoken influence of Julian Schnabel, a sentiment echoed by Ripps himself.
Notable Works
Two of Ripps' works, "Untitled" and "The Meadow" belong to the permanent collection at the Brooklyn Museum under their Contemporary Arts wing. Six of Ripps' work belong to the Vogel 50x50 collection. "Odyssey in Space", is part of the permanent collection at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France
Selected Solo Exhibitions{{Cite web|url=https://artfacts.net/artist/rodney-ripps/198775|title=Rodney Ripps Artist|last=ArtFacts|website=ArtFacts|language=en|access-date=2019-12-06}}
1991: "now is the silence"- Marisa del Re Gallery, New York City, New York, United States 1985: Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York City 1984: Carnegie Mellon U., Pittsburgh, 1984 1983: Munson-Williams Procter Institute, Utica, New York Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, 1983 1982: Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris, 1982 Galleria Schema, Florence, Italy Dart Gallery, Chicago Gallery 121, Antwerp, Belgium Gallery G7, Blogna, Italy Munson-Williams Procter Institute, Utica, New York 1981: Holly Solomon Gallery, New York City, New York, United States 1980: Akira Ikeda - Nagoya, Nagoya, Japan 1979: Galerie Hans Mayer, Dusseldorf, West Germany Gallery Bruno Bishofberger, Zurich, Germany 1977: Nancy Lurie Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019: " Pattern, Crime & Decoration" - Le Consortium, Dijon, France 2008: " American Abstract Artists: Tribute to Esphyr Slobodkina" - The Painting Center, New York City, New York, United States 2005: "Blooming" - Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States 1983: " New Work New York - Newcastle Salutes New York" Gallery North, Northumbria University Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom 1982: "Dynamix" - Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States 1981: "Figures, forms and expressions" Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, United States 1979: Whitney Biennial 1979 - Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York, United States 1978: "Thick Paint" - The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Illinois, United States "Arabesque" - Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States 1977: "New Abstract Objects" - Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, New York, United States "Painting 75/76/77" - Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
