LAUNCH Gallery is proud to present two distinct bodies of work in the current solo exhibition by Los Angeles artist Bryan Ricci. In Color Creates the Light, Ricci utilizes his mastery of color and materials through unique application and layering techniques in which he examines abstraction as metaphor for our memory retention and prioritization. A second body of work utilizes photographs as touchstones of memory while paint and other materials disguise and embellish these memories in and out of our conscious and subconscious.
For me, the paint application works as metaphor for the way we memory is constructed. The raw linen represents my lived experience. The first layer of translucent paint represents the reminiscence with a possibility of the unconscious mode seeping through both the paint and the linen. This application represents the dichotomy between the unconscious and conscious modes of memory, which is elusive on its own. The paint that now covers the first layer further represents an edited recall of the experience. With each new layer, a new memory presents itself and now comes to the surface. The original experience is now almost completely covered. The painting becomes the priority at a certain point during the process and what is left is the idealized version of itself.
Bryan Ricci graduated from SUNY Purchase College in New York in 2000, earning a BFA in Painting. He relocated to Los Angeles to attend Otis College of Art and Design, earning a MFA in 2012 and currently teaches painting at Santa Monica College and Loyola Marymount University.
Ricci has exhibited his work domestically in galleries and art fairs in California, New York, Hawaii and Pennsylvania as well as internationally in Seoul, Korea, Xinzheng, China, and Brisbane, Australia. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County presented a solo exhibition of his paintings entitled, “A Closer Look.”
