Featured Artist: Riccardo Liotta

I did not study art. My education is in architecture, with a bit of physics and mathematics. I have been in fact a practicing architect for over 20 years. but art has always been a passion, since I was a child: drawing, doodling, comics, then illustration, graphic design, the art of the masters.

I discovered acrylics and started painting during architecture school, while working as an architectural illustrator. For my school projects, I produced presentation drawings and paintings in a very abstract, interpretative way. After school, I continued painting and generated art in different mediums, mainly as a hobby, but occasionally selling too. I also entered some competitions throughout the country and took part in a few group exhibitions. I won a couple of awards and once was selected to be included in a major statewide artists biennial, in an actual museum.

I have been seriously painting and producing artwork for over 15 years, now and while at first this was a spare-time activity, in the past four years or so this activity has become more than a simple interest or passion, and in fact a regular and steady effort.

Because of my professional training, my early work had been inspired by architecture and, in fact, vaguely represented structures and buildings elements. however, my main inspiration has always come from physics and mathematics, fields that fascinate me and that I have studied extensively. These have formed the foundation of my architectural work and projects, and consequently of my artwork. As a result, my focus has increasingly shifted to artwork less reminiscent of buildings and more of particle physics and quantum mechanics concepts, as well as mathematical and geometrical principles. By combining these subjects with the theories and techniques of the Constructivism, Suprematism, Futurism, and Rayonnism art styles, I developed what I call the “eigencompositions”: analytical, abstract artwork consisting of simplified yet very dynamic geometrical shapes, fields, lines and segments that convey concepts of movement, velocity, decay, fragmentation. These eigencompositions stem from shapes randomly generated through a systematic geometrical process and symbolize particle trajectories, the fragmentation of nature, as well as the uncertainty and undeterminability of life, to parallel quantum theory principles.

As I further developed my ideas for the eigencompositions in terms of methods and techniques, I had also started a new conceptual effort based on the notions of linear algebra, matrices and linear transformations, as an alternative system to generate shapes and whole compositions. the “linear transformation” compositions evolved from the idea of constantly manipulating a shape - by implementing mathematical rules and formulas - almost endlessly, to create a new one. Here too, the concepts of movement and velocity are present and the incessant manipulation and consequent change in shape, along with its repetition, reflect the fragmented, ever-changing, unstable and therefore uncertain characteristics of nature.

Linear Transformation 04 - Derivation 02

The objective of the linear transformations was two-fold: first to deeply analyze and study the intrinsic correlation between a particular area of mathematics and art, by developing a unique, albeit subjective, technique that would best express this relationship. second, it was to analyze the boundaries between objectivity and subjectivity, a fundamental concept of quantum mechanics.

Through continuous artistic research and development, I also had many opportunities to learn and experiment with a variety of techniques, methods and tools that have allowed me - if not forced me - to generate compositions using new approaches, different from the abovementioned systems, while also diversifying my modus operandi. Searching for alternative methods to generate forms, shapes and whole compositions has in recent years become an area of interest and a major effort.

This has led me to studying, analyzing and redefining - through interpretative sketching done in situ, in museums and churches - gothic art, medieval frescos, portraits from the 16th century and abstract figurative art of some of the 20th century masters, as a way to find new, hidden geometries and the relationships that make these compositions.

Reinterpreting these works – by means of geometrical and chromatic reduction, simplification and other manipulations – constitutes an alternative method to generate new compositions.

My artwork now can therefore be generated either through the use of the different mathematics and geometry concepts or as a development of a simple drawing, a small sketch of a piece done at a museum, a diagram, a quick collage, or a “spontaneous” assemblage of paper clippings and fragments.

Polychromatic Fragmental Assemblage (From Superimposed Simplifications) 001

But many compositions are simply the result of a “natural”, logical evolution and derivation of previous work. I often refer to my compositions as “transient” systems, because many of them are in fact a “snapshot” of a phase of a constantly evolving, impossible to complete system, at a specific time. these are an attempt to represent the invisible elements and hidden forces that shape the universe and nature, governed by randomness, chance and probability.

All these approaches are like mechanisms utilized for forms generation: elimination and alteration, destruction, (re)building and transformation, layering and all sorts of operations to manipulate and experiment with figureground relationships, proportions, harmony, contrast, overlaps, and to analyze and alter the behavior of colors, forms, fields, lines and segments.

The resulting art - derived by applying these new techniques - has therefore evolved from the early work, becoming less rigid and less systematic, instead more intuitive, gestural, fluid.

Polychropo Composition 001- Painting Study- Chromoderivative 004

Technically these newer compositions, while still being influenced by Futurism, Rayonism, Constructivism, Suprematism, also take inspiration from comics, graphic design, diagrams, quilts, collages and photographs of particle collisions and electron microscopy.

Nevertheless, all my artwork, despite which diverse approaches it originates from, shares many common stylistic traits and characteristics, and belongs to a broad style I identify as “polychromatic fragmentism”.

I find acrylic to be the medium that best expresses my ideas and theories. however, I also work with colored pencils and pastels, pen, markers and collage. I also extensively utilize the computer to generate patterns, shapes and compositions, and to alter/enhance paintings and drawings.

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Instagram: @riccardoliotta.art

Chromogeometric Fragmented Interference (From Superimposed Reductions) 001 - Study 06