andrew rigsby

ARTIST STATEMENT

I like to address the landscape as both a internal and external phenomenon, using the lens of popular culture and what might described as “contemporary archetypes” (if there is such a thing). I typically work in a installation format, as I feel it best can capture the feeling of the landscape, especially the urban landscape, through the use of multiple materials and devices. Using light box photographs, painting, sculpture, and video to create multifarious tableaus, I try to capture the full range of visual experience available on a daily basis.

Most of the work revolves around a certain set of shapes, used to define a marked place of life, experience and memory. These shapes change in meaning for myself and hopefully others by how they interact with each other and their environment. They are a pictographic memory system, used to create a process that is meditative and active in it’s mode of execution, and in the completed image. The process involves the use of chance and expectation, working in consort, in some ways nullifying each other out. A system set up with specific designs, yet no specific outcome expected.

Over the years, many things have influenced the evolution of my artistic practice that I think are worth bearing notice. I have been strongly influenced by early experimental film, various types of meditative processes and experimental ambient music. These things have helped me to define my broader sense of the spiritual in my work as a artist, tending towards a poetic relationship with my visual sensibilities. I have a strong affinity for the work of artists like Stan Brakhage, Sol Lewitt, John Cage, and Brian Eno. The use of process to generate a work of art enable a poetic and beauty I try to emulate in my own work.

I continue to learn how to use these modes of expression in new and different manners, constantly learning how they can better serve to express my ideas and concepts. The greatest challenges I face are finding ways to exhibit and engage others in a dialogue that I hope is enriching for myself as it is for the viewer.

BIOGRAPHY

I was born and grew up on the South Side of Chicago at the cusp of the 70’s, attended Catholic Grade school and all boys Catholic High School, things that are not so unusual growing up on the South Side of Chicago, at least at that time, actually probably the end of a certain time. After High School and a brief stint at St. Xavier University in Chicago, I moved to Peoria and attended Bradley University, where I received my BFA in Painting and Drawing. After Peoria, I moved to Seattle for 5 years prior to Graduate School at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale for my MFA in Studio Art.

I was the founder of GARDENfresh, a gallery based out Chicago. I received my MFA from Southern Illinois University in 2000, and my BFA from Bradley University in 1992. I have shown both Nationally and Internationally, most recently with Art Modern Gallery in Miami, Mikes Museum in New York, What it is in Oak Park, Il, (Con)Temporary Art Space, Chicago, antena, Chicago, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Meyers, Florida, Bridge ArtFair New York, Miami and London. I have also shown in New York, Kansas City and Tokyo, on various occasion. I am currently represented by Art Modern Gallery in Miami Florida and what-it-is project space in Oak Park Illinois.