Ricki Arno

My work focuses on the examination and exploration of the confined, defined and refined space “within and without the box”.

The enclosure of confined space is my reality living in NYC. Though my living space on the ninth floor is generous in square footage, my windows share the precious light of day with thousands of high-rise structures all stuck together, leaning on, and holding each other up on the very congestion Island of Manhattan. Ninety-five families live side-by-side, on top of, and underneath one another in this tower of brick and concrete that stretches its water-tower-head upward, oblivious to the fast-paced, dynamic, always energized and teeming city streets below. What my world is “within the box” is quite different “without the box”.

This enclosure of space is echoed in the defined space in which I live here in Jackson Hole, WY. “Within the box” many windows share the daylight with the towering trees, and majestic mountains that surround. “Without the box” there is a world composed of millions of creatures, big and small, that pack every inch of space: dynamic and teeming with life, living on the edge of survival on this congested Island of Earth.

All four world and all four spaces are charged with high-powered sparks of both creative and reactive energy, living side-by-side, on top of and underneath, holding each other up “within and without the box”.

As I work, the essential spirit in and around the space of each box guides me through the process. The shapes of the containers are all different in size and configuration, btu each is still a box and the images are all structured in and around the form, each confined in its own very personal world. I choose colors that are vibrant and saturated, some lying flat like perfectly still water, while others bounce off and vibrate around one another.

The life within and without appears to be sunlit and optimistic though the boxes deal with circumstances buried deep within my emotional world. With each one, I am forced to confront and resolve issues of space, time and history, pinpointing what is essential and what is not in the planning and formulation of my art.

Though small in scale, the boxes teem with layers of mixed media and ornamentation: found objects, textural components, unreadable fragmented script, along with my paintings and photographic images that I collage, manipulate and squeeze. All of these disparate materials are combined and assembled with much concentration and care, and a deep respect for the sanctity of both the subject matter and the materials.

-Ricki Arno