Visual Arts Professor’s Work To Be Featured in Distinguished International Exhibit

VENICE, ITALY – In one of the world’s most prestigious art exhibits, La Biennale di Venezia, opening this month in Venice, Italy, Michael Rich will pay homage to the Italian city he loves with a new painting inspired by its beautiful waterways.

Rich, professor of Visual Arts, will exhibit a painting, titled “La Serenata (The Serenade),” in the Venice Biennial Art Exhibition 2022: Personal Structures, running April 23 through Nov. 27, at the European Cultural Centre in Venice, Italy.

“The Venice Biennial is one of the largest and most important international art exhibitions,” said Rich, an American contemporary and abstract artist, adding that he’s excited to have his painting featured in the highly regarded exhibition.

At 7-feet by 12-feet and in three panels, “La Serenata” is a colorful large-scale abstract painting inspired by the waters of Venice, or more specifically, the water as it appears in the 19th-century paintings of Claude Monet, John Singer Sargent and JMW Turner, Rich said. His piece “aims to give the viewer a moment of respite and old-world romanticism amid the chaos of the current day.”

Rich, who’s worked at RWU for 21 years, was invited by the ECC to participate in the exhibition after organizers saw his work at an art fair in New York, he said. He wanted to pay homage to the city of Venice and create “something big and immersive.”

His participation in the exhibition is sponsored in part by RWU and the Foundation to Promote Scholarship and Teaching.

On sabbatical seven years ago, Rich was an artist-in-residence in Venice. “It was a special place to me,” he said. “To go back with my work is a dream come true. It’s wonderful.”

Rich said his paintings, drawings, and prints “reflect an approach to nature and landscape as a wellspring for spiritual investigation and meditation through the contemporary language of gestural abstraction.” He aims to discover meaning in a landscape of intimacy through a language that is visceral, physical, and colorful, he said.

Growing up on Nantucket, Massachusetts, Rich, who now lives in Providence, said that water has always been important to him, and spending time around the ocean and beautiful landscapes has influenced his work to this day.

Rich’s work has been featured in The Bristol Art Museum and The Newport Art Museum in Rhode Island, and the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, Ark. He is the recipient of the Basil H. Alkazzi Award and was included in Sotheby’s auction series, International Young Art. His work is featured in numerous private and public collections nationally including The Bronx Museum of the Arts, N.Y.; Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, La.; the Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Ohio; and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

The Personal Structures exhibition will coincide with the 59th International La Biennale di Venezia at the Palazzo Bembo, located on the Grand Canal.

Established in 1895, La Biennale di Venezia is one of the most prestigious cultural institutions, states a press release. La Biennale stands at the forefront of research and promotion of new contemporary art trends and organizes events in its specific sectors of arts, architecture, cinema, dance, music, and theater, alongside research and training activities. The International Art Exhibition is considered the most prestigious contemporary art exhibition in the world, introducing hundreds of thousands of visitors to exciting new art every two years.

The exhibited works at the Venice Biennial Art Exhibition, states a press release, present the awareness of each artist, questioning and reflecting, “where do I come from, where am I, and where to go?”

Founded in 2002 by Dutch artist Rene Rietmeyer, the ECC is an organization that establishes cultural centers worldwide and is devoted to generating cultural exchange by organizing international art and architecture exhibitions, symposia, and a wide range of cultural projects, states a news release. ECC’s goal is to “create awareness, to strengthen cultural commonalities and to learn about the qualities within our differences.”

After traveling to Venice to install his work this month, Rich said he’ll stick around the city for the related festivities. He expects to return during the summer to take part in the symposia, he said, perhaps giving a lecture.

“Once the work is up, it becomes an ongoing site for cultural exchange,” he said. “It’s different than just having a show. It’s bringing people around the world together.”

Michael Rich at Venice Biennial