Dan Rizzie is an American contemporary artist and musician who was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1951. He is a painter, printmaker and collage artist and for many years has lived and worked in Sag Harbour, New York. Rizzie received his BFA from Hendrix College, Arkansas in 1973 and later in 2005 he was awarded the college's Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 1975 Rizzie gained his MFA from the Southern Methodist University, Dallas.
Rizzie's fundamental influences are Piet Mondrian, Kurt Schwitters and Kazimir Malevich and this is apparent in his work. The contemporary artists Jasper Johns, Cy Twombley and Brice Marden are also very important inspirations, as are less expected ones such as Paul Klee, Robert Delaunay, Gerald Murphy and the marginal Swedish artist Hilma Af Klint. Arguably even more significant is Rizzie's long-time fascination with Tantric imagery and Indian miniature painting. It is a key fact that Rizzie spent his school years in New Delhi. In 2009 the artist returned to India and these experiences have made a lasting impression on his art.
Rizzie's multifaceted, mixed-media pieces confront the surfaces of things and illusionistic space is his enemy. A signature theme is graphic silhouettes of flowers or birds cast in front of decorative, abstract patterns. This is an artist who does not deal in frivolous matters such as wistfulness or whimsy and one who rejects light and delicacy from the artwork's surface. This is not a superficial act because Rizzie's references are passionately poetic, complicated and fraught. One of the key elements to recognise in Rizzie's artwork is the artist's fascination with private codes, secrets and encrypted elements within in his coterie of symbols and signs. We might know the meaning of a repeated form or image and sometimes the artist will hint at its derivation but there are times when they are simply unknown. As for the myriad of other associations, whether obvious or mysterious, their aura constitutes a great part of the appeal of Dan Rizzie's artwork.
For the last five decades, Dan Rizzie has exhibited extensively all over the United States, particularly in Texas, New Mexico and New York. An expert printmaker, Rizzie has published with the Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico and the Tandem Press, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin. His artwork can be seen in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Scottsdale Museum of Art, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and several corporate collections throughout the United States.
Wilson Stephens and Jones came across Dan's work in New Mexico. We exhibited his collages in our 2003 show 'Three Americans' and are delighted to have worked with him ever since.