Exhibitions

RISA HRICOVSKY: STRANGER THINGS

The Emporium Center / 100 S. Gay Street September 2, 2022 - October 1, 2022

Risa Hricovsky

In this new exhibition, Risa Hricovsky showcases small sculptural installations from her series Strange Stranger.

Risa Hricovsky received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a post-baccalaureate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BFA from Bowling Green State University. Recently, she received a Bailey Opportunity Grant, Current Art Fund Grant, and won First Place in Mixed Media in the Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics (OH). She has exhibited nationally and internationally and has attended many prestigious residencies, most notable of which are the Studios at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA; Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center in Skælskør, Denmark and SIM in Reykjavik. Iceland. Currently, Hricovsky is an Assistant Professor of Art at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, TN.

Risa Hricovsky is a post-discipline/installation artist. Her work pushes the boundaries between painting and sculpture and between art, design and craft. The artworks she creates punctuate space through pattern, color, and her use of the multiple. The work juxtaposes similarly colored materials with opposing properties, such as fired porcelain with soft sculpture or paper. In doing so, each material takes on characteristics of the other, giving rise to misperception and subtly introducing tension within the calm of repetition. In her work, the series Strange Stranger is a collection of sculptures made with different materials with varying degrees of likeness. The sculptures all have a familiarity that draws the viewer in but simultaneously reject identification as knowable objects. This ambiguity creates tension within the viewer, who wants the object to be recognizable yet can enjoy the sculpture on a formal and aesthetic level. These sculptures are constructed with materials such as porcelain, thread, repurposed plastics, polymer clay, fabric, foam, paint, glitter and more.