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Collage artist Dan Rizzie’s skillful and innovative works are often predominated by a single form or motif, meticulously set in a collage-like environment he creates with found materials. Rizzie was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1951. His father was a United States diplomat and Rizzie’s childhood and adolescence were spent all over the world, including India, Egypt, Jordan and Jamaica. He received his B.F.A. from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, in 1973, and later completed an M.F.A. at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Rizzie spent his formative years as a painter in Dallas, where he first achieved national acclaim and today has a large following in the arts community. Today, he resides in Sag Harbor on Long Island.
At first glance, Rizzie’s work appears strikingly simple and minimal, and it is only upon further examination that his meticulousness and extreme care for detail become apparent. Rizzie works in a variety of media, experimenting with different ways to build upon that which is fundamental to his work: craftsmanship. He prefers streamlined forms, such as cones, circles, triangles, and, perhaps most of all, the curvilinear arabesques found in ornamental wrought iron. Antique documents, such as maps, legal papers, and sheets of music, and English botanical studies have also been a significant source of inspiration for the artist. In 1983, he broadened his vocabulary of forms to include lettering, flowers, vines, tree branches, and ancient vessels. In addition to incorporating elements such as newspaper and wax into his compositions to create an aged, layered effect, Rizzie also mixes coffee grounds and dirt into his paint to further enhance the surface texture.
Rizzie has exhibited widely since 1975, including over fifty solo exhibitions, in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Dallas, amongst others. His work can be found numerous public collections throughout the United States, including the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Art, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, New
York; the New York Public Library; the San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas; and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona.
KS
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