RON R IZK New Paintings

October 24 – December 5, 2015

Lora Schlesinger is pleased to announce New Paintings, Ron Rizk’s third solo-exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition opens with the artist’s reception on Saturday, October 24th from 5-7 pm and is on view through December 5th

, 2015. Rizk paints with a high degree of technical virtuosity that entices viewers to become immersed in the act of

looking at paintings. Though each piece draws one in with optical tricks and deception in the tradition of tromp l’oeil, Ron adds a contemporary twist creating a dialogue between realism and abstraction.

Rizk’s masterfully rendered new paintings continue a historical tradition of tromp l’oeil creating illusions on a two-

dimensional surface of hand-chosen peculiar man-made objects. Among the subjects depicted are strange tools that have become obsolete in a technological age, vintage toys, fragments of folded paper or painters’ tape. The elements

are arranged or placed in compositions that address questions about abstraction creating an interplay between

dimensionality and flatness, realistic and imaginary, figuration and abstraction. From afar, one can mistake the paintings Soft Landing and Business Machine for flat geometric abstractions. At closer inspection the elements of

each piece reveal carefully crafted wooden wheels hand-picked from a children’s toy and an aged abacus rendered

with such a high level of detail that one can see the cracks on the surface of the wood where the paint changes in

texture and color from use and old age. Rizk’s subjects remind the viewer of the history of each object with great attention paid to their surfaces, venerating them in the end. Juxtaposing his perfectionism with imperfect objects and

imaginary landscapes, he creates a visual language that is not only a portal to another world; but also opens a window

into the endless discussion about painting and the role of painting in the art world.

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 form the University of Illinois,

Champagne-Urbana. He is a former Professor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing at the University of Southern California Roski School of Fine Arts. He has exhibited nationally since the late 1960’s in galleries across the United

States and with museums including the Denver Art Museum, CO; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Grand Rapids

Museum of Art, MI; Laguna Beach Museum of Art, CA; Long Beach Art Museum, CA; and Oakland Museum, CA.

Freefall, 2014 oil on panel 30 x 40 "

Grounded, 2015 oil on panel 30 x 40"

At Low Tide, 2015 oil on panel 30 x 40"

Summer's End, 2014 oil on panel 24 x 36 ”

Waiting, 2015 oil on panel 30 x 40"

Code of the West III, 2015 oil on panel 11 x 14 "

Business Machine, 2013 oil on panel 24 x 30”

Dream House, 2015 oil on panel 24 x 36 "

Daily Grind, 2013 oil on panel 12 x 12"

Soft Landing, 2015 oil on panel 30 x 40 "

Test of Faith, 2015 oil on panel 16 x 12 "

In Transit, 2014 oil on panel 30 x 36 ”

Left and Right, 2014 oil on panel 12 x 24"

Fresh Paint, 2013 oil on panel 12 x 16"

RON RIZK 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 Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing at the University of Southern California Roski School of Fine Arts. SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2015 Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2013 Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2010 Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2007 Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Culver City, CA 2004 Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2001 Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1998 Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1996 Tatistcheff/Rogers Gallery, Santa Monica, CA Ettinger and Reynolds Gallery, Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna Beach, CA 1995 Golden West College, Huntington Beach, CA 1993 Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1991 Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1989 Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, CA 1988 "Ron Rizk: A Survey 1978-86", Grand Rapids Museum of Art, Grand Rapids, MI traveled to: Midland Art

Council, Midland, MI; Jesse Besser Museum, Aplena, MI; Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI; Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI; Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI; Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, CA

1986 Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1982 Neil G. Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1979 Wenger Gallery, San Diego, CA University Gallery, University of Southern California, CA 1975 Boehm Gallery, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA 1974 Light Gallery, New York, NY 1965 Gallery 61, Newark, NJ GROUP EXHIBITIONS: 2014 “Group Show”, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2014 “Gallery Artists”, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2013 “Summer Group Show”, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2012 “Summer Group Show”, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA “Small Paintings Group Show”, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2011 “Gallery Artists Group Show”, Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2010 “Reality Check, Contemporary Trompe l’Oeil Painting”, Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA 2008 “Visions Selections from the James T. Dyke Collection of Contemporary Drawings,” Naples, FL and Little Rock, AK 2007 “The Toy show,” Hunsaker/Schlesinger, Santa Monica, Ca “Representation,” Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, NY and San Francisco, CA 2005 “It ain’t Necessarily So,” Davis and Cline Gallery, Ashland, OR 2005 “New Old Masters”, Gallery C, Hermosa Beach, CA

2004 “Drawings VII”, Koplin Del Rio Gallery, West Hollywood, CA 2002 "Unconventional Views: New Concepts in Contemporary Still Life Painting" Ettinger Gallery, Laguna College

of Art & Design, Laguna Beach, CA 2000-2001 “Representing LA: Pictorial Currents in Contemporary Southern California Art, Frye Art Museum, Seattle,

WA, traveled to South Texas Art Center, Corpus Christi, TX and Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA 1999 "Drawing the Line," Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, CA 1998 "Drawings IV", Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA "Illusion-Tromp L'oeil And Slight of Hand", The Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA "Allegorical Re/Visions", Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1997 Hackett-Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1996 Joan Roebuck Gallery, Lafayette, CA Weingart Gallery, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 1995 Tatistcheff/Rogers Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1994 "Visual Fictions, Sensory Deceits", Fresno City College, Fresno, CA "The Game Show", Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA 1992 "The Allure of Illusion: Trompe L'oeil in Contemporary Painting", Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah

State University, Logan, Utah 1987 Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA "Selections from Ovsey Gallery", The College of Creative Studies Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 1986 "Fourteen Southern California Artists", Laband Art Gallery, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA "Uncovering the Past-Tribute and Parody", Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA "Selected Works From Ovsey Gallery", Bank of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA "Summer Group Exhibition", Fresno Metropolitan Museum, Fresno, CA "More Than Meets The Eye, The Art of Trompe L'oeil", Norton Gallery of Art, West Palm Beach, FL "More Than Meets The Eye, The Art of Trompe L'oeil", Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH 1985 Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (Dec.) Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (July) "Art and Travel", San Francisco International Airport, CA 1981-85 "Contemporary Trompe L'oeil Painting and Sculpture", National Traveling Exhibition to: Queens Museum,

Flushing, NY, 1984-85 Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, CA 1984 Salt Lake Art Center, Salt Lake City, UT 1984 Bellevue Art Center, Bellevue, Washington, 1984 The Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 1983 Boise Art Center, Boise, Idaho, 1983 Neil G. Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1984 Japanese American Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1983 1982 "Group Effort", Neil G. Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1981 "Los Angeles Visual Arts Festival", Japanese American Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA 1980 "New Talent", Allen Stone Gallery, New York, NY Group Show, Dobrick Gallery, Chicago, IL "Reality of Illusion", National Traveling Exhibition: Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO 1979 Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 1979 Honolulu Academy of Art, Honolulu, HA 1980 Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA 1980 University Art Museum, University of Texas, Austin, TX, 1980 Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 1980 1976 Palos Verdes Museum of Art, Palos Verdes, CA Two Person Show 1974 "The Uses of Realism", University of California, Riverside, CA 1973 Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Four Person Show 1971 Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Faculty Exhibition Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los angeles, CA Palos Verdes Museum of Art, Palos Verdes, CA, Three Person Show 1970 Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Faculty Exhibition 1968 Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Three Person Show "The Artist-Teacher U.S.A. Today", Inaugural Exhibition, State University of New York, Oswego, NY

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 2013 Zimmerer, Kathy, “Ron Rizk,” Art Scene, Vol. 32, No. 17, Feb. 26, p.12 2007 Korten, Noel, “Ron Rizk: New Paintings,” Catalogue essay 2004 Ollman, Leah, “Art that’s instantly gratifying,” LA Times, May 28, E28 2001 Weisberg, Ruth, “The Paintings of Ron Rizk: The Marvelous and The Real,” Catalogue essay Ollman, Leah, “Gamesmanship, Visual Illusions,” LA Times, Feb. 9

Isoyama, Tomoyuki, Review, BT Bijutsu Techno Art Magazine, Vol 53, No. 803, April 2001, Japan (reproduction)

1997 Donohue, Marlena, Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 12, p.16, (reproduction) 1996 Turner, Nancy Kay, ArtScene, Jan., Vol. 15, No.5, p.11 (reproduction) 1991 Geer, Suvan, "Ron Rizk's Painterly Deceptions,” LA Times, March 20 1989 Curtis, Cathy, "Artist Ron Rizk's Work is the Result of More Than Just a Useful Skill,” Los Angeles Times,

Orange County, Pt IV, April 2, p. 10 (reproduction) Review, LA Times, Jan. 13, (reproduction)

Tuchman, Laura, "It's An Odd, Odd World That Ron Rizk Paints,” The Orange County Register, March 24, (reproduction)

1987 Lawrence, Michael, "Ron Rizk,” Artscribe, March/April, pp. 87-88 Komak, Dennis L. & Pincus, Robert L., “Decoys & Deceptions: The Paintings of Ron Rizk, 1978-86,” Grand Rapids Art Museum Catalogue

1985 Connel, Jane E., “More Than Meets The Eye: The Art of Trompe L'oeil,” Columbus Museum of Art Catalogue, pp. 32, 38, 110, 114 Pincus, Robert L., "Art As Artifact", Flash Art, Summer, pp. 39-41 1984 "The Metaphysical Illusionism of Ron Rizk,” Art In America, Dec., p.173 Donohue, Marlena, LA Times (review), Friday, Sept. 14, p. 6 1983 Knight, Christopher, "Cultural Excavations,” Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Sept. 14

Michelson, Judith, "Visual Arts Showcased Downtown,” LA Times, Sept. 10 O'Leary, Dennis, “Contemporary Trompe L'oeil Painting and Sculpture,” Boise Gallery of Art Catalogue “Cultural Excavations: Recent and Distant,” Japanese American Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA Catalogue essay

1982 Weisberg, Ruth, "Doorways To Dreams,” Artweek, June 19 1980 Wortz, Melinda, "Los Angeles Trompe L'Audience,” Artnews, Feb. 1979 Wilson, William, LA Times, Friday, Nov. 28 (reproduction) "Sneak Preview of Fall Exhibitions Season,” LA Times, Sept. 16, (reproduction) Miller, Elise, "Trompe L'Oeil Works of Ron Rizk,” LA Times, Nov. 5

Ron Rizk, “Freefall,” 2014, oil on panel, 30 x 40”.

alongside color photographs of per-sonal possessions — shoes, lipstick, various pieces clothing — that become a celebration of one person’s essence. The project about her mother was the catalyst for a commission to work with the Hiroshima Peace Museum. The photographs in “hiroshima” are color prints of objects that survived the bombing. Aware that others had also photographed these objects, Miyako wanted to present them from a feminine perspective. Her solution was to focus on the details in the patterns of women’s dresses, the delicate fabrics long since torn and covered with bloodstains. Clothing for Miyako, is a second skin and the Hiroshima garments represent the skin of the deceased. Shot against a neutral background, these images convey loss but also the power of life and the spirit of memory. Miyako has remarked that, “the past revisited in the present remains alive” and her collec-tive body of work brings new life to that which has disappeared.

Jody Zellen

RON RIZK

visual message.Each work is meticulously paint-

ed in oil on a modest-sized panel of wood. Take “Vane,” for example, where a black horse and a white horse face each other while racing in opposite directions on an antique weathervane. If we envision the horses as stand-ins for our political parties, which one wins will depend on which way the “political wind” is blowing.

Or consider “Freefall,” where a midnight sky is littered with anti-quated listening devices or micro-phones that fall toward a bright red earth. In today’s world, where so many covert instruments capture conversations from every country imaginable, privacy no longer exists! It’s in “freefall,” like something re-membered from our distant past.

Then there’s “Phases,” where a month-long series of fragmented moon images slowly enlarge into the full moon across a midnight sky. Below them, Rizk has pasted various card clues on his board. They include monthly positions of the planets, wind directionals, and a microphone. Once again Rizk is making political comparisons. Just as planets change their position in the sky over the month, and wind changes directions HDFK�VHDVRQ�RQ�HDUWK��VR�GR�SROLWLFDO�trends change over time, just like the phases of the moon.

As so it goes. Whether it be a hick-seed farmer with a straw hat on his mouth (“Still Dancing”), a small, wooden, toy cowboy holding-up a wooden freight-train (“Code of the West”), a bright-red, old-fashioned telephone (“Talk”), an ancient abacus with bright-colored balls (“Business Machine”) or a game of skill called

(Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Ber-gamont Station, Santa Monica) Ron Rizk had been creating his own unique approach to painting that brings together the shallow space tromp l’oeil of John Peto and Wil-liam Harnett with California assem-blage since the late 1960s. By com-bining old, antique relics, outmoded inventions and long-forgotten toys with torn pieces of paper objects and photographs, he’s able to make clever political and social criticism about contemporary affairs, national events and world happenings.

Although Rizk was a long-time art professor at USC (now emeri-tus), his sense of humor and playful-ness remain intact. In fact, some of his works are so subtle, it may take some time for viewers to begin to get the allusions. But if you ponder what he’s painted “outside of the box,” you PLJKW�ÀQG�\RXUVHOI�ODXJKLQJ�RXW�ORXG�ZKHQ� \RX� ÀQDOO\� GLVFRYHU� 5L]N·V

ArtScene14

Ron Rizk, “Freefall,” 2014, oil on panel, 30 x 40”.

alongside color photographs of per-sonal possessions — shoes, lipstick, various pieces clothing — that become a celebration of one person’s essence. The project about her mother was the catalyst for a commission to work with the Hiroshima Peace Museum. The photographs in “hiroshima” are color prints of objects that survived the bombing. Aware that others had also photographed these objects, Miyako wanted to present them from a feminine perspective. Her solution was to focus on the details in the patterns of women’s dresses, the delicate fabrics long since torn and covered with bloodstains. Clothing for Miyako, is a second skin and the Hiroshima garments represent the skin of the deceased. Shot against a neutral background, these images convey loss but also the power of life and the spirit of memory. Miyako has remarked that, “the past revisited in the present remains alive” and her collec-tive body of work brings new life to that which has disappeared.

Jody Zellen

RON RIZK

visual message.Each work is meticulously paint-

ed in oil on a modest-sized panel of wood. Take “Vane,” for example, where a black horse and a white horse face each other while racing in opposite directions on an antique weathervane. If we envision the horses as stand-ins for our political parties, which one wins will depend on which way the “political wind” is blowing.

Or consider “Freefall,” where a midnight sky is littered with anti-quated listening devices or micro-phones that fall toward a bright red earth. In today’s world, where so many covert instruments capture conversations from every country imaginable, privacy no longer exists! It’s in “freefall,” like something re-membered from our distant past.

Then there’s “Phases,” where a month-long series of fragmented moon images slowly enlarge into the full moon across a midnight sky. Below them, Rizk has pasted various card clues on his board. They include monthly positions of the planets, wind directionals, and a microphone. Once again Rizk is making political comparisons. Just as planets change their position in the sky over the month, and wind changes directions HDFK�VHDVRQ�RQ�HDUWK��VR�GR�SROLWLFDO�trends change over time, just like the phases of the moon.

As so it goes. Whether it be a hick-seed farmer with a straw hat on his mouth (“Still Dancing”), a small, wooden, toy cowboy holding-up a wooden freight-train (“Code of the West”), a bright-red, old-fashioned telephone (“Talk”), an ancient abacus with bright-colored balls (“Business Machine”) or a game of skill called

(Lora Schlesinger Gallery, Ber-gamont Station, Santa Monica) Ron Rizk had been creating his own unique approach to painting that brings together the shallow space tromp l’oeil of John Peto and Wil-liam Harnett with California assem-blage since the late 1960s. By com-bining old, antique relics, outmoded inventions and long-forgotten toys with torn pieces of paper objects and photographs, he’s able to make clever political and social criticism about contemporary affairs, national events and world happenings.

Although Rizk was a long-time art professor at USC (now emeri-tus), his sense of humor and playful-ness remain intact. In fact, some of his works are so subtle, it may take some time for viewers to begin to get the allusions. But if you ponder what he’s painted “outside of the box,” you PLJKW�ÀQG�\RXUVHOI�ODXJKLQJ�RXW�ORXG�ZKHQ� \RX� ÀQDOO\� GLVFRYHU� 5L]N·V

ArtScene14