CURTIS RIPLEY
Curtis Ripley’s practice occupies a space between the gestural immediacy of Abstract Expressionism and the immersive chromatic sensibility of Color Field painting. Ripley’s work synthesizes these traditions into a contemporary language grounded in process, layering, and revision. Working over a base of black gesso, Ripley establishes a stark, absorptive ground against which his saturated hues assert themselves with heightened intensity. Splatters, drips, and veils of pigment remain visible, indexing the artist’s physical engagement and preserving the immediacy of each mark. Repeatedly layering and removing paint, Ripley composes complex, moody atmospheres, within which expressive marks and gestures appear to float lyrically at varying depths of field.
While resonant with historical explorations of light and atmosphere, Ripley’s paintings remain distinctly present. They are open-ended, responsive, and experiential, often reading like tone poems and evocative abstract reveries to nature. The works’ titles reveal Ripley’s love of nature, music, and poetry as well, as he often titles his works as preludes, nocturnes, sonatas, and odes.
Throughout a career spanning more than four decades, Curtis Ripley has exhibited nationally and internationally, with an extensive record of solo exhibitions. Born in Lubbock, Texas in 1949, he received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1975. Select public collections include Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Galerie Urs Meile Beijing and Lucerne, Beijing, China, Chemical Bank, New York, Hotel Monaco, San Francisco, Imperial Hotel, Osaka, Japan, The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles, J.P. Morgan Chase, New York, and HBO, New York.
EXHIBITIONS
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RECENT PAINTINGS
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