Rick Rivet

Rick Rivet

Rick Rivet - Artist Biography

Rick Rivet was born in 1949 in Aklavik, Northwest Territories. His early years were spent growing up in the delta in a Metis family which made their living by trapping, hunting and fishing. The Metis are a people of mixed heritage, a combination of Native Indian and European stock. The Metis were originally settled in the prairies of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of British Columbia. Rivet’s family family lived on the land and in town depending on the season. At age seven Rick began attending school in Aklavik with other students from the region, which he describes as a seminal crosscultural experience. After finishing high school Rivet journeyed south in 1969 to attend university, later travelling across Canada and working at various jobs such as surveying, roofing, oilrig work, mining and prospecting.

His post-secondary education concentrated on art, history, and the humanities, culminating in a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Saskatchewan in Painting, Drawing and Art History in 1985. Since 1989 Rivet have worked full time as a painter, mainly concentrating in acrylic, mixed media and collage on canvas, with some drawing. He cites a wide variety of Influences, which derive from Shamanistic imagery of ancient peoples the world over (North American Indian, Inuit, Australian Aborigine, Norse, Oceanic, Siberian and so forth). Equally influential are Western and Contemporary artists and art movements (Edvard Munch, German Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Antoni Tapies, Paterson Ewen, Robert Rauschenberg, John Dubuffet, David Milne, Art Povera, Art Informel, J..M.W. Turner, Paul Klee, Kathe Kolwitz and Primitivist Art) to name a few.

Rivet’s work involves combining and re-interpreting the iconography of various aboriginal peoples in a contemporary perspective. His art is intuitive, expressionistic and individualistic in means and method and he primarily seeks poetic expression – a visual language which uses the visible universe as a metaphor for the invisible, a communication between the world and the spirit, a mystical relationship between physical/metaphysical realities. The context of his body of work is the human existential journey through the matter/space/time continuum. His work aspires to the spiritual and it’s encounter with shamanic ideology and culture is meant to compels us to recognize the binding ties of a common spiritual heritage.

Selected Exhibitions:
2019: Tracks Through the Firmament, Gallery Gevik, Toronto, ON (Solo)
2016-2017: Across the Turtle’s Back, The Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK
2014-15: Beautiful Games: American Indian Sport and Art, The Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ. USA (Group)
2011: Transitional States – New Work, Gallery Gevik, Toronto, ON (Solo)
2007: Rick Rivet – Paintings – 2000 – 2005, Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, SK (Solo, travelling to venues across Canada)
2003: Rick Rivet – New Work, Gallery Gevik, Toronto, ON (Solo)
2002-2003: New by Two – 2002, Rick Rivet / Anita Fields, Andy Warhol Foundation Fellowship Show, The Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, USA (Dual)
2001: Art Exhibition, Taiwan Fine Arts Museum, Taichung, Taiwan (Solo)
2001: FNAC, Taipei, Taiwan, (Solo)
2001: Rick Rivet, Wabash College, Crawsfordsville, Indiaana, USA, (Solo)
1999-2000: Shamanic Images’, Indian and Inuit Art Gallery, Dept. of Indian and Northern Affairs, Ottawa, ON, (Solo)
1999-2000: Osopikahikiwak, Canadian Embassy, Department of Foreign Affairs, Washington, D.C., Canadian Cultural Centre, Department of Foreign Affairs, Paris, France (Dual – Rick Rivet / Jane Ash Poitras)
1999-2000: Contemporary Masters: The Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, (Group)
1996 – 1997: Topographies – Aspects of Recent British Columbia Art, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC, (Group)
1992 – 1994: Indigena - Perspectives of Indigenous Peoples on Five Hundred Years, The Indian and Inuit Gallery, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec (Group exhibition travelling to Canada and the USA 1992 – 94)
1991 – 92: Directions, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, ON (Solo)

Selected Permanent Collections:
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, AB
The Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau, QC
The Indian Art Centre, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa, ON
The Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, ON
The Government of British Columbia Art Collection, Victoria, BC
Dept. of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Art Collection, Canadian Embassy, Moscow, Russia
The Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto, ON
Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN., USA
The Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, USA
The University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge, AB
Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, ON

Artist Specialization: Rivet describes his approach as Expressionist/Primitivist with concerns related to aspects of his Native-Canadian reality and viewpoint. These concerns are expressed in two ways – in relation to the shamanistic/spiritual tradition and the historical/cultural/socio-political/eco-environmental viewpoint in the examination of issues related to his experience. His approach is introspective, involving the existential nature of being – the spiritual, the psychic and the physical aspects of human experience. His art also explores mark-making, colour, shape, texture, line, volume, figure-ground interaction and other formal relationships; paint and collage as part of process; draughtsmanship within painting and by itself; graphic qualities from printmaking experience; symbolic imagery in a contemporary context; and various other elements of visual art as language/process.