BIOGRAPHY
Rick Monzon grew up in a Los Angeles area housing tract that would later make suburbia the major theme of his work as an artist. Other early influences were the wild, sculptural show cars of Ed”Big Daddy“Roth and George Barris and the even wilder psychedelic concert posters from the Fillmore Auditorium.
Attending the Art Center College of Design in the early 70s, he pursued commercial art and went on to work for many Los Angeles publications and entertainment agencies including Warner Brothers CW network.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that he picked up the brush. His Echo Park studio was right next door to a small start up gallery that gave him his first show. Moving to neighboring Highland Park he became part of the Arroyo Arts Collective.
In 1999 his fluid, dreamy depictions of Southern California suburbia received coverage in the publication New American Paintings. This brought representation by Sue Greenwood Fine Art, and later, George Billis/LA, Charles Hespe/San Francisco and Patricia Rovzar/Seattle.
More recently Rick has focused on working with art consultants and designers in the healthcare and hospitality fields.
Over the years his work has appeared in film, print and television and in collections both public and private around the world.
RESUME
Education
1973 Art Center College of Design, Los Angeles, CA
1971 Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA
Exhibitions
2018, 2014 George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2002-2018 Venice Family Clinic ART WALK and AUCTION, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Sullivan Goss Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA
2016 Gallery 525, Ojai, CA
2004/2008 Klaudia Marr Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2005-2008 Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, WA
2003-2007 Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2004-2005 George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2002-2004 Hespe Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2003 California State University at Los Angeles
2000-2002 Diane Nelson Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2000-2001 DNFA Gallery, Pasadena, CA
2001 Los Angeles County Museum of Art Rental Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2001 Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna Beach, CA
2000 Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1999 Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Television and Film
Ellen 1995 sitcom starring Ellen DeGeneres
Walking and Talking 1996 film directed by Nicole Holofcener
Numerous art rentals to the industry through Film Art LA
Publications
Suburban Landscape, The Art of California Sprawl by Ann M. Wolfe
San Jose Museum of Art and University of Chicago Press, 2006
New American Paintings, January 2000
Artweek, September 2000
O.C.Weekly, August 2000
Awards
1995 Associates Purchase Award, Brand Library XXV Exhibition, Glendale, CA
Collections
Mark Andres, San Clemente, CA
Julie Gilbert, Los Angeles, CA
Nicole Holofcener, New York, NY
Tom Balmaine, New South Wales, Australia
Lauren Antonoff, Seattle, WA
Ivo Watts Russell, Santa Fe, NM
ARTIST STATEMENT
I like to view the commonplace through a lens of altered consciousness. Mundane tract homes become plastic and malleable. I reduce them to simpler shapes, omitting doors and windows. Distortion and blur in my paintings were an influence from the days of 60s psychedelia. But by far, the most important quality to me is light and shadow. Whether it becomes a strong element of a particular piece or not, for me it’s the soul of any painting.
That’s my tool box.
REVIEWS
“Art that packs this intense a provocation of thought and emotion is rare, especially when such art is accompanied by accessible imagery and economic, subtle composition….”
MAT GLEASON, art critic / ArtScene
“In order to fully enjoy Rick’s art, one has to let go of the desire for conventional understanding….” Full Review
“This painting mesmerizes….” Full Review
“intense and epic palette…” Full Review
“Who lives in these buildings..The protagonist from the film “Donnie Darko” comes to mind…….” Full Review
ELIJAH SHIFRIN, art critic / Art and Critique
Artistic Touch: Fifties suburbia served as artist’s first inspiration…. Full Interview
NICOLE D’AMORE, Correspondent / Ventura County Star