August Art Exhibit
The Library Art Gallery is hosting photography from John Rizzo from July 27 through August 30. The artist reception will be held on Thursday, August 8, 4 – 6 PM in the Gallery.
Artist Exhibit Statement
Making photographs is what I do. It is part of who I am. Some days I am a vagabond, others an artist, painter or technician, always searching out the mundane and banality of our surroundings. I will often wander the streets looking for fragments of life, details, symbolism, individuality and evidence of habitation. Simply placing the camera’s frame around the things I see, nothing more than a “cat burglar” looking for the right window. Documenting my world much like photographers before me.
The images presented in my East Cambridge, Massachusetts Project are a mere observation of a neighborhood, it’s individuality, the ordinary and the symphony of objects, color, shape and texture simultaneously creating realty and abstraction. I photographed as if I were in the house across the street looking out a window wanting the viewers to feel that they are in their neighborhood. There are a few central themes tying all the images together.
Can you identify them ?
This is one part of a two part project that focus on two neighborhoods that have been significant in my life. The purpose of the project is two fold to examine and compare cultural differences and similarities. I hope you enjoy viewing and studying the detail, beauty and the window into the symphony of life the images reveal.
Artist Biography
John Anthony Rizzo is a recipient of both a Massachusetts Counsel for the Arts and Humanities Photography Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Project Grant. John’s early work was influenced by the photographers Gary Winograd, Robert Frank, Eugene Aget and W. Eugene Smith.
He endeavors to explore society and the world of everyday life through his personal photography achieving a style that is uniquely his and gaining worldwide recognition for his work. He started his professional career in Boston, Massachusetts and later moved to Portland, Oregon where he opened a studio and enjoyed a successful career as an advertising and editorial photographer. His interest in the young and fast growing Oregon and Washington wine industry and the emerging sustainable agriculture movement allowed John to combine his personal passion with his visual style and interpretation.
John soon became well known for his photographs of the people who dedicate their lives to growing and producing great products. His images grace the pages of books, ad campaigns, and magazine articles throughout America and Europe. John was given the Award of Excellence in Photography by the International Association of Culinary Professionals and his extensive pro bono work with Share Our Strength and Oregon Food bank has been acknowledged for it’s insightful and sensitive documentation of hunger in America.
John founded Ars Nova gallery and was the artistic director of Obscura gallery, two critically acclaimed galleries in the burgeoning Portland Art scene. John has exhibited his work extensively both in the United States and Europe. His work was recently publishd as a feature article in the Berlin, Germany, Arts and Social Commentary Magazine “Dummy”. John enjoys the contrast of sharing time in both the Piedmont region of Italy (where he and his wife Donna lived for 14 yeears) and Lincoln, MA. John continues to work in Fine Arts Photography, and pro bono causes that are dear to him, to teach and lecture and whenever possible he travels with his wife Donna and his Leica M.
