Wade Wilson Art featured on modernhouston.net

WADE WILSON ART // JAN 26 // 6-8PM

Raw Beauty: Recent Paintings
by Zachariah Rieke
January 26 through February 25, 2012

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Wade Wilson Art
4411 Montrose Blvd,
Houston, 77006
713.521.2977
www.wadewilsonart.com

Zachariah Rieke was born and raised in Kansas and has a prolific resume in studies and
teaching including institutions such as University of Alberta. During his forty-five-plus years of
painting, Rieke has been featured in many galleries across the United States including a
retrospective at the New Mexico Museum of Art where his wife’s work, Gale Rieke, was also
featured.

In this new series of paintings, Zachariah Rieke uses his predominately monochromatic
aesthetic that speaks through movement of the paint and medium. The artist thins much
of the pain so that it stains directly into the surface of the canvas. In large part, the forms
are created by the alluvial action of pigment deposited on tides of water. His work has
always focused on the metaphysical, a never-ending inquiry into the nature of the
universe around him and his role within this universe. His painting is propelled by the
pursuit of an unreachable sublime, a profound paradox strongly centered in
Kiekegaard’s “leap of faith.”

Each movement on the canvas is indelible and a recording of the journey of the paint.
The result is paintings that are vibrant and full of life. The artist writes: “My work is, and has
always been, about discovery. On occasion I have spoken of the act of painting and
the resultant completed work in terms of cartography: If painting is truly an act of
exploration, then no map is followed, but rather the painting itself becomes the map,
recording the paths that one has taken to its completion. My own method of painting
entails finding the image in the course of working. The current body of work is
purposefully rough and direct. There is a certain ‘poetry’ hopefully. The dichotomy is
between the forceful application of the major movements and the subtle nuances
resulting for the most part from incidental (as opposed to accidental) markings.”