Michael Rich
Rehoboth, Massachusetts
Michael Rich is a contemporary, internationally exhibiting, abstract artist whose approach to painting and printmaking is colorful, exuberant and visceral.
Message
In paintings, drawings and prints, Michael Rich explores the beauty and irascibility of the New England landscape through an approach to painting that is visceral, physical and colorful. Often working in large scale, his work is abstract in its appearance, owing much to the painterly language of the American abstractionists of the mid-to late 20th century. However, one can see overt references to the sea and sky, weather and light. An accomplished printmaker as well, Rich works with the graphic processes of intaglio and woodcut.
Recent featured museum exhibitions include The Bristol Art Museum, The Newport Art Museum and the Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville Arkansas. Michael participated in the 2022 Biennial exhibition at the European Cultural Centre, Venice, Italy during the 2022 Biennale. Rich is the recipient of the Basil H. Alkazzi Award (USA) and was included in Sotheby’s auction series, International Young Art. His work is featured in private and public collections nationally including, The Smithsonian Institute, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY; Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA and the Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH among others.
Statement
My paintings, drawings and prints derive from the landscapes of my experience. I grew up and live near the ocean and find endless inspiration from the light and weather of New England and the North Atlantic. I’m interested in natural forces and finding some approximation of those forces in color and mark of paint.
Often working at a large scale, I come to the canvas free of preconceptions and open to the possibilities of discovery. Pictures and images are not the aim so much as an orchestration of color and mark into an illuminated landscape with the resonance of memory. I look at my paintings as if I am looking across a landscape I could swear I once visited. I walk long distances without moving.
It is my aim to probe the depths of an inner space through these meditations in light and color. My work whether in paint or print, is an intimate moment of reflection through image, a search for a deeper connection to place and a consciousness of the present moment.