To launch yourself into the world of Eric Rippert’s paintings, you might put on The Man Whose Head Expanded by The Fall, an English Post-Punk band. The title of the song has now become the title of Rippert’s BAYarts June exhibition, as well as the title of the first piece of artwork in this series. It is successful at being both playful and eerie. Neon yellow plays against watery greys, and a skull takes the focus as a coarsely drawn train outline floats in the lower corner.

Rippert has been a fine art photographer for years, with work being exhibited internationally and being kept in the permanent collections of places like the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Clinic Art Collection. To say that he’s a heavy hitter in the Art World would be putting it mildly. And there is nothing mild about these vivid paintings.

So where does the music come in? What he listens to during creation becomes a tangible extension of the piece through the title. “To me, music inhabits the same subconscious space inside me that my paintings come from,” says Rippert.

The art itself is a combustible collection of colors, gestures, and shapes that speak to the wild treks that his mind takes in his artistic process. Here, the rules he so preciously guarded and followed in photography have been chucked out the window as his car freewheels down the highway. It is this exciting sense of stirring and life that make these pieces so arresting to examine.

The imagery laced through the pieces is personal, based on his experiences of caring for his elderly father or growing up as a kid in suburbia. These life events are what he calls his “inner prep work.” Rippert explains that they sometimes manifest “as memento mori skulls” or “rocket-powered race cars drawn with the same shaky scrawl as the six-year-old me.”

When Rippert is asked what he hopes viewers take away from this work, he is interested in enigmatic impressions that evoke emotion. “It would be great if visitors to my exhibition could experience some sort of sensation that is out of the ordinary—an awareness that may be difficult to immediately identify or define, like the feeling one gets when reminded of a blurry moment from long ago.”

Take a journey through Rippert’s mind during the opening reception: June 7, 7:00 to 9:00pm. On display through July 6.

 

GET OUT! FESTIVAL: OUTDOORS, WELLNESS & ART | 11–3PM SATURDAY, MAY 18

ERIC RIPPERT & TIMOTHY HERRON RECEPTIONS | 7–9PM FRIDAY, JUNE 7

FARM & ART MARKET | 5–8PM JUNE 13 (EVERY THURSDAY)

ART & MUSIC FESTIVAL | 10AM–4PM SATURDAY, JUNE 15

MISTY HUGHES & CHRISTY GRAY RECEPTIONS | 7–9PM FRIDAY, JULY 12

PHYLLIS FANNIN & JACKSON KOCH RECEPTIONS 7–9PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 9

BAYarts
28795 Lake Road
Bay Village, Ohio 44140
BAYarts.net
440.871.6543