ANGEL RICARDO RICARDO RIOS | FRUTA de la PASION

Opening Reception: December 16, 2023, 3:00pm - 6:00pm MT

Artist Reception: Saturday, January 27, 2024, 3:00pm - 6:00pm MT

“How can I find a title for this exhibition? … Should it have a title at all?” -- Angel Ricardo  Ricardo  Rios (November 2023) 

Angel Ricardo Ricardo Rios would like the exhibition, Fruta de la Pasion, to speak for itself.  He struggles to find language to  describe what he is up to artistically. He sees no equivalent. In fact, it seems contradictory, since while painting, he is captive to intuition, gesture, reflex, and pure emotion.  

The artist concedes that if he looks at his practice over time, he can identify certain moods and tendencies. There are themes that emerge and recur: flowers, seduction, eroticism, selflessness. Though well-studied, Ricardo Rios adheres to no specific art methodology, theory, or movement. His responsibility is to his own instinct which allows him the freedom of not supplying tidy explanations to his viewers. This provides his viewers with equal freedom to interpret.  

In Ricardo Rios’ realm of feeling, everything becomes clear -- things are simply as they are. He believes that art is not about providing answers. It welcomes entirely non-verbal ways of assessing, allowing us to rely on our senses vs. intellect. In this way, the viewer is invited to enter the paintings alongside Ricardo Rios – to be part of their energetic center rather than passive observers on their outskirts. 

How do his paintings feel on our skin, evoke smell, taste, or sound? How do they ask us to check in with our bodies? How do they allow us to step back from extreme statements like “it’s good or bad” and settle into a softer place like “it pleases me or it doesn’t.” They just are. 

Ricardo Rios explains, “Fruits of Passion is ethereal – a series of images that can’t be pinned down. It’s an aroma. It’s a fruit -- a passion fruit. Art is an image, but it’s also a perfume that is intangible. It is a still life, it distills life, it is a passion fruit -- my own one.” (Mexico, October 2023)

Note: K Contemporary and Ricardo Rios, in collaboration with the University of Colorado’s Emmanuel Gallery, offer a second venue to experience the artist’s work. Walking distance from K Contemporary, Ikebana is on view at the Emmanuel Gallery through February 24, 2024 and includes smaller paintings as well as one of Ricardo Rios’s monumental inflatables, also called Ikebana.  Ricardo Rios will be in Denver at both venues the week of January 22, 2024 for public programs, student critiques, and an artist reception. Please visit K Contemporary’s and the Emmanuel Gallery’s websites for specifics closer in.