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• Biography

About the Exhibition

This is the seventh of an ongoing series of special exhibitions at the Buell Theatre featuring work by metro Denver artists. The exhibitions are curated by DOCA Public Art Administrator Rudi Cerri. The mission of the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs is to advance the arts and culture in the City and County of Denver.

Riva Sweetrocket returns to the vivid color palette that is most characteristic of her work for the paintings in "Heaven and Earth." In the eleven new large-scale pieces that comprise the exhibition, intense color reappears, utilized to fully engage the viewer in the complex imagery that is the foundation of her work. Anonymous hands and feet populate these paintings, offering viewers the opportunity to relate in a personal way through universal themes and concerns. The paintings in this formidable show collectively address tensions between the human and non-human (or natural) worlds, and the dichotomy of the spiritual versus the material.

The recognizable objects in these paintings function as symbols, indicating a semiotic system operating within the work. At such large scale, ordinary things seem to take on another significance. Sweetrocket has a degree in psychology, and though she chose instead to pursue a career in art, that training remains an influence in the ideological vocabulary that inhabits her work. She is interested here in non-verbal forms of communication as a mechanism through which she can visually convey ideas. The disembodied hands and feet are iconic, and the most expressive parts of the human body, beyond faces and the capacity for speech. Sweetrocket seeks something elemental and universal in the themes she expresses in her work, at the same time producing paintings of a scale and technical mastery that are breathtaking. The large and vibrant paintings of "Heaven and Earth" can be enjoyed for their form, energy and technique as well as the ideas upon which they are based. There is no question that these paintings are a truly magnificent acheivement, testimony to the countless hours spent creating them.

- Gene Zazzaro, Plus Gallery 2009

Denver artist Riva Sweetrocket creates immaculately executed works on paper utilizing soft pastels, a medium not normally associated with contemporary art. Her work can be characterized by its indulgence in rich, vivid color, surreal compositions of everyday objects and allegorical narratives. The surfaces of her paintings are luscious and realistic. They engage viewers and almost physically lure them into the work. The scale of her works allow the viewer to experience them like architecture – being completely surrounded by its colors and ideas. Sweetrocket’s paintings are a tour de force of symbolic imagery and unparalleled technical skill. With each new painting she pushes further into advanced visual realms, creating singular imagery of breathtaking beauty dosed in both the mundane and magical.

Sweetrocket was born in Oregon in 1969 and has been drawing and painting since she could walk. She received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1994, but abandoned the field shortly thereafter for her true love: art. Although she has had extensive art course work, Sweetrocket is essentially self-taught as an artist. She has been working in pastel on paper since 1998 and her large-scale images have the feel of oil paintings.

Sweetrocket has received numerous awards and artistic recognition from a very young age. Her 2008 Plus Gallery exhibition "Handle With Care" was chosen as one of Denver’s Top Ten Art Shows of 2008 by The Denver Post.

"The imagery in this show speaks to the majesty of nature and human existence. Often these two elements are in opposition to each other but in ideal conditions they compliment one another. This is the balance I hope to achieve in my paintings. I'm using only hands, legs and feet to suggest a human presence and there are two reasons for this. First, these body parts, when isolated, have a visual simplicity that I feel works well for me compositionally, and second, they suggest a human element without specifying identity. This anonymity allows the viewer to make each piece uniquely their own.

Each one of these paintings for me has a transcendent element. This may be reflected in the title, or it may be more obvious in the piece itself. I spend a lot of time thinking about the interconnectedness of things and I think of my paintings as bringing disparate elements together to create an unexpected order. It's analogous to putting several items in a blender and if the ingredients are well chosen, what comes out is a surprisingly tasty smoothie.

As a woman I have an inherent appreciation of the female perspective and my protagonist is often female. I also see nature as having feminine qualities, so these two elements seem to work synergistically together. Color and composition are important to me as well. In my last show I tried to make my work seem more "serious" and incorporated a certain amount of grayscale imagery in the pursuit of this. What I really missed in doing so was color. This body of work reflects my shift back in the other direction, toward bold, expressive, colorful paintings. My aim is to create eye-popping images that I, myself will want to gaze at and I hope others will too.

All of these paintings are created using soft pastel, which is powdered pigment held together with a binder. Soft pastels are very dusty and essentially have the feel of chalk, while being quite a bit more luxurious. I started using them almost by accident, and was immediately drawn to them. Since my style is quite realistic and exacting, however, I probably should have selected an alternate medium. Soft pastel usually wants to do exactly the opposite of what I intend, and my work is often the result of fitting a square peg in a round hole. I find this difficulty somewhat seductive and so I persist undeterred.

There is also something magical about touch. I paint with my hands and when I'm working I touch a painting thousands of times, transferring hours and hours of love and attention directly into a few square feet of space. The end product reflects this energy and attention in ways that photographs and even some brush painted work may not. I can't say exactly what this magical something is but I feel it there, encapsulated in the piece forever."

- Riva Sweetrocket, 2009