Space Gallery St Barth is delighted to present the talented Riz Riz Rizz in his inaugural exhibition in New York City, ‘We Need Romance in our Madness’. Rizz’s work offers an intimate look inside his feelings and life experiences full of drama, trauma, tragedy and comedy all wrapped in one satirical work.

In this series of paintings, we step fully into Rizz’s world – into his imagination and dreams, into his pastel palette of delights. Here heavenly animals and heroic females live. Floating on soft tones with large, wild brush strokes, these painting invite you in. With a deceptive simplicity, there is a naivety to this work, but take a deeper look and they are laden with myths and cultural references. These paintings are poetry that spill out from the artist’s romantic and gentle soul and you beg to know more. As you discover tableau after tableau, you ask who are the women depicted and what is their story?

Rizz has the ability to communicate a plethora of complicated emotions through his paintings. The female figure is almost always accompanied by animal imagery and literary prose, which divulge the complicated world inhabited within each painting. Each story laid out before us but shrouded in an air of mystery.

The artist’s familiarity with pop culture and understanding of art in all its forms, knowledge of literature and history along with his ability to represent the human spirit, create timeless pieces. Rizz adds wit and humour to his work.

Rizz is a true artist. His passion for his subject and his excited energy bewitched me. He had the same childish/ serious quality that I saw in Basquiat. He makes you ask, is he naïve or a genius?

(Tamra Davis, Director of Jean-Michel Basquiat “The Radiant Child’)

Rizz has a deep passion and true love of art and painting – it is part of his very essence and in this way his paintings speak to you and touch you in ways you cannot explain. There is a purity and beauty to his work which has a universal appeal as well as representing where he comes from and his own heritage.

In this mad period of time, I put all my heart and soul into my artwork. I have lost my mind in this process But in all this madness, I still feel the burning passion in my soul to keep creating.

(RizRizRizz)

RizRizRizz is a renowned Indonesian multidisciplinary artist. His works have been exhibited in galleries around the world, and consist of sculptures, paintings and ceramics. The exhibition will comprise a series of three limited edition poster designs in addition to several of the artist's ceramic vases.