Perhaps some of the most visually exciting and spiritually charged work coming out of the contemporary Canadian art scene today are the paintings by artist Rick Rivet. His signature style of painting blends abstract-expressionism, primitivism, collage and sgraffito into nothing less than a miraculous spiritual alchemy, where theme and subject matter transcend cultural boundaries. His work cannot be limited to or typecasted into any particular genre of art, but instead his work reflects his universal interest as a visual artist of Canadian Metis ancestry. His work is a synthesis of personal experiences, insights, research and ideas drawn rom indigenous cultures and histories, global iconographies and spiritualities and other world cultural affinities and attributes. Influences stem from the sacred beliefs of indigenous peoples, including North American Indians, Inuit, Africans, Oceanic peoples, Australian Aborigines, Ancient Norse, Aleut, Siberian, and Druidic
peoples, where a mixture of ancient signs and semiotics act as mnemonic devices to communicate and trigger thoughts, emotions and memories. Rivet is particulary drawn to European and American artists including Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Paul Klee, Antoni Tapies, Robert Rauchenberg, and Jasper Johns, who themselves have looked towards indigenous cultures for influences in the stylistic development of their own work. Abstract expressionsim, primitivism, arte povera, collage, neo-expressionism are a few of the influences that have informed his work. His approach to painting is not consciously structured, but instead, a shape, form or icon may act as the impetus for a painting, from which he builds upon in layers and collage, while repeated gestural mark-making reveal the colours below. His use of colour is not necessarily predetermined, but develops as his emotions and feelings influence the work. …
