Dan Rizzie

Focusing on a single form or motif, in his images, Rizzie creates meticulously detailed collage-like environments in which he blends a fastidious attention to detail with a pared-down minimalist approach with which he modifies rather than producing pure abstractions. Rizzie is particularly sensitive to materials and reuses old favorites in his collages and paintings. A serious collector of vintage textiles and linoleums, Rizzie consciously replicates hand screened and blocked effects. The refined shapes of ornamental wrought iron, which he also admires and collects, appear in his paintings. Rizzie's early work was abstract in form and stylistically connected to historical modernism. Over time he refined his visual vocabulary to include cones, circles, triangles, and squares, as well as musical notes or ornamental curves like those found on wrought-iron fences. About 1983, Rizzie began introducing representational imagery such as flowers and vines, tree branches, lettering, teapots and anthropomorphic vessels into his work.

Solo exhibitions include Lizan Tops Gallery, East Hampton, NY; Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe; Ruth Siegel Gallery, NYC; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas; Liz Mayer Fine Art, NYC, and the Dallas Museum of Art to name a few. His work is in dozens of national and international collections including The Dallas Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum; MOMA; The New York Public Library; The San Antonio Museum of Art; and The U. of New Mexico, in Albuquerque.

 Currently, he resides in Sag Harbor, New York. Since relocation to the East End of Long Island, his work has softened and become more influenced by details from the natural landscape. Today, Rizzie considers his paintings to be rooted in common objects, an extension of the still life genre.

Rizzie's work is included in many prominent collections, including the Crescent Hotel, Dallas, Texas; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas; New York Public Library, New York, New York; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona; The Ogden Collection, Louisiana; and the United States Department of State, Washington, D.C