So,
On Thursday night I had my opening reception for my second solo exhibition: Faces N Colors.
So, more than anything I just want to post pictures, but I think a little introduction is needed. In 2017, I had a solo exhibition at a bar called Fountain, in Toronto, Canada. I exhibited 12 of my graphite portraits, and I sold one. It was great and I had a good time, back then I was still trying to master my portrait skills by using pencils. It was something that I was strangely passionate about, but I think it was because I was doing this for the people. They loved it.
That's actually how I got started, but of course you'll find that in some earlier posts. I also was new to exhibiting my work in public spaces. I watched closely to all the shows I was apart of, and figured to myself, if I am going to get anymore exposure, for my work to gather more sales, then a solo exhibition would be the way to go. It's not only for the money, but it's also about pushing myself to do things I've never done before.
I had reached out to Tiffany and Melanie of the Freedom Factory to do a solo show with them. They agreed, and I started my journey to planning, organizing and getting this big show together. Along the way, some people had reached out to me for exposure. I had two rap performers who I met, one by random, who works at a Pizza store, and the other through one of my artist friends, who recommended me to check out their music.
They loved my work, and wanted me to help them with their album covers. So, I did. I generated these covers with my cartoon works, while I worked on the portraits in the breathe to balance out the show I had looming over me. They both made great music to boot, and for the portraits I was doing, which were mostly celebrity portraits, I started to see the synchronization.
Color portraits was also a new venture, as I started creating them last year.
It all started with this portrait here:
From there, I went straight into celebrity portraits. My portrait selection was really limited, and due to all of my obligations, I really couldn't do as much as I wanted to, but that's okay. I created celebrities from the 1950's like Marilyn Monroe, to the 90's R&B urban stars like Aaliyah, to the misunderstood and polarizing new age rap stars like XXXTentacion, who died in 2018, rest in peace.
It was more for the new age, as I see myself who's coming up in my industry as a new age artist.
The turn out was magnificent !
My friends and family all came out to support me, and I was beyond grateful. We had some technical difficulties in the beginning of our show, but we worked it out in time for the performers to perform!
We had a great time at the opening, we also played a game as well, which involved guessing which of the portraits had a golden ticket on the back of them. It was a little confusing at first, but at the end of it all, everyone won prizes !
Time for some pictures!
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| Artist Statement |
Here's the artist statement, which basically says the same thing I summarized in the beginning of this post!
okay so off first rip, I painted all of my frames a different color.
I actually came up with the idea to paint the frames, from the birth of my niece.
See, she was born in 2018, and I decided for her first Christmas present, I would
paint the fame of her portrait pink, because of how great it looked, I always
kept it in the back of my mind.
When it came down to it, I thought that the painted frame give
much more character and novelty to the entire product. Some of the colors
gave it a nice cool feeling, or some of painted frame gave the piece more energy.
I really put a lot of thought into the presentation, because I wanted this show to look
it's best, and I think i nailed it.
Some of my friends looking!
Just to let you guys know, I sold 5 pieces in the opening night.
The Nipsey Hussle happens to be one of them!
I also have some graphite portraits as well, to balance out the color !
Salvador Dali sold as well.
most of these portraits were shown in my first show.
I think I made good choices, I mean, who doesn't like Beyonce and Jay-Z?
and Amy Winehouse?
Here's some pictures from Val Peters; my photographer friend who documented these well!
Me and my bestie, and fellow artist, Amanda!
Oh, and by the way.
The performers CHXXX and Young Val, absolutely killed their performances !
It was such a pleasure having them there, it made the show that much more lively!
Here's a video of them performing
GANDHI !
I had a great night! and it made me realize that persistence really pays off. 5 years ago, I was sitting at a desk at home, trying to figure out how I'm going to crack into the creative industry in Toronto, and I trusted my intuition and went with what worked first, and that was these portraits. People seem to love them and I'm thankful that they do. I feel accomplished and everything worked out in the end,
All I gotta say to that, is don't let instant gratification take control over your life, in order to be successful, it takes time, and patience. It will all work out, believe me, or in that case, believe you!
With that being said,
Thank you for all your support!
Paint-Life. 2019.
Richie.
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