RISK | Electric Color
ON VIEW
June 2 - June 23, 2022
RECEPTION
Thursday, June 2, 6-8pm
LOCATION
413 West Broadway
New York, NY
-
RISK (b. Kelly Graval, 1967) is a multifaceted contemporary artist, sculptor, and pioneering graffiti writer who was celebrated for more than three decades in the Los Angeles art community before gaining global acclaim. Emerging as a founder of the West Coast Graffiti movement, RISK now draws A-list celebrities, artists, musicians, fashion designers, and actors, such as Shepard Fairey and Dave Navarro, to collaborate at his sprawling Risk Rock Studios Compound in Thousand Oaks, Calif., a contemporary manifestation of Andy Warhol’s Factory. RISK was deeply inspired by a conversation about Buddhism with the late painter Ed Moses, a seminal figure in the Post-War, West Coast art scene. Images of Buddha appear in his neon and Crossroads series, evoking a zen-like spirit amid recurring motifs such as butterflies, repurposed spray paint cans and labels, and myriad music and pop culture references, all coming alive with bold use of color. RISK’s enduring mastery of street art embodies elements of commercial art, Pop Art, and color field painting.
RISK favors found objects and sustainable practices, creating a wide array of works with discarded everyday objects and fine art materials. RISK has uniquely sculpted sharks, dolphins, cows, and a LAPD cruiser severed in half, all crafted from a variety of reclaimed items including metals he calls metallic tissue. His latest series emerged during the pandemic when RISK began cutting up and weaving discarded paper to create large-scale canvases for his Crossroads paintings. Along with his ubiquitous butterflies, re-imaginings of the Rolling Stones logo and cartoon character Felix the Cat, as well as Buddhas, appear throughout his Crossroads paintings and in his neon electric fine art. His monumental murals and prints require multiple complex techniques and treatments. Beautifully Destroyed, a series of site-specific works, including commissioned pieces on large walls in Miami and Santa Monica, California, as well as on newspaper vending machines and fire hydrants, beginning in 2012, signaled RISK’s shift from graffiti to color field exploration.
Graval rose to prominence in the 1980s as one of the first graffiti writers in Southern California to paint freight trains. He hitchhiked to New York City after graduating high school and becoming the first LA writer whose work ran on a subway car in 1988. The following year, the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority mandated that all subway cars be free of graffiti before running on the tracks. Music is central to RISK’s life and artistic oeuvre, spanning decades and styles, from writing graffiti for the backdrop of Michael Jackson's 1987 video The Way You Make Me Feel to designing the cover art for the 2019 Blink 182 album Nine. He has worked on private commissions and projects with dozens of musicians such as Aerosmith, Slash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ice Cube, Bad Religion, House of Pain, Halsey. Major brand collaborations include work for the National Football League, Lyft, Monster Energy, Indian Motorcycles, and Marvel Studios. His collectors include world-renowned musicians and actors who frequent the compound. RISK’s work has been shown in leading galleries, and was featured in the 2011 Art In The Streets at the Museum of Contemporary Art, LA, which was curated by Director Jeffrey Deitch and Associate Curators Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose. The exhibition traced the development of graffiti and street art from the 1970s to the global movement it has become today. His metal shark sculpture was included in the wildly successful Beyond The Streets exhibition in New York in 2019. RISK lives and works in Thousand Oaks, CA.
Chase Contemporary is pleased to announce a solo exhibition spanning four decades of far-reaching works by multi-disciplinary artist and pioneering graffiti writer RISK. RISK: Electric Color will showcase monumental metal sculptures, large-scale works on canvas and paper, and neon electric fine art, among an array of vintage and new work that promotes sustainability through the use of recycled and found materials. The exhibition will feature three days of live painting events open to the public, as well as artifacts from the legendary Risk Rock Studios Compound where he collaborates with an array of rockstars, actors, and other renowned visual artists.
Opening in the gallery’s 10,000 square foot SoHo flagship, the exhibition underscores RISK’s fluidity and skill across genres, styles, and mediums, through works executed between 1983 and 2022. The gallery will transform to convey the look and feel of RISK’s sprawling compound in Thousand Oaks, Calif., a contemporary incarnation of Andy Warhol’s Factory. His dynamic roster of on- and off-site collaborators includes artists such as Shepard Fairey, Mr. Cartoon, and Andres Valencia, musicians including Dave Navarro and Billy Morrison, and actor Dennis Hopper. Opening to the press and VIPs on June 2, 2022, the show will run June 3-24, 2022, with live painting events on June 3-5.
RISK, whose work has been likened to the Ferus Gallery movement, was deeply inspired by a conversation about Buddhism with the late painter Ed Moses, a seminal figure in the Post-War, West Coast art scene. Images of Buddha recur in his large-scale neon and hand-woven Crossroads series, alongside other self-referential motifs such as butterflies, repurposed spray paint cans and labels. His oeuvre defies simple categorization, incorporating elements of commercial art, Pop Art, and color field painting.
RISK, who became well known in the 1980s as one of the first graffiti writers in Southern California to paint freight trains, has evolved into a widely respected studio artist. His work has been included in many leading gallery shows, and was included in the 2011 edition of Art In The Streets at the Museum of Contemporary Art, LA, and the wildly successful Beyond The Streets exhibition in New York in 2019.
