NEW YORK _ 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.