Dan Rizzie is an artist of paradoxical qualities.  His independence is in contrast to his aesthetic conservatism.  And perhaps because of his unwillingness to be either revolutionary in his artistic approach, or as flamboyant in technique as he is patently capable of, his work hasn’t been as accurately understood as it deserves to be.  Rizzie’s extraordinary knowledge of art history informs his art deeply, but in off-beat, even eccentric ways. One is tempted to suggest that at times absorption in the art of others, subsumes his own passion to express a uniquely individual set of feelings.  But on further reflection, and especially in light of his more recent body of work, one sees that Rizzie’s vision is as truly sui generis as it is possible for a traditionally grounded artist to be.

The present group of paintings and drawings gives a fascinating set of clues to the artist’s influences and affinities.  Rizzie states that perhaps his fundamental allegiance is to Mondrian, Schwitters and Malevich, and that most certainly shows in the work.  But so do many other less predictable presences:  Robert Delaunay, Paul Klee, Gerald Murphy, the marginal but powerful early 20th century Swedish artist Hilma Af Klint—all of these painters resonate in Rizzie’s work.  Though he doesn’t usually identify with these particular sources, he won’t argue with them.

The contemporary figures he singles out as important touchstones, are Brice Marden, Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns.  Perhaps even more significant than his interest in these artists is his longtime fascination with Indian miniature painting and Tantric imagery. It is important to note that Rizzie spent his junior and senior high school years in New Delhi.  It was there that he was first exposed to this world; all of this was dramatically re-affirmed in the summer of 2009 when the artist revisited India. All of these presences resonate everywhere in his work.

One of the keys to an understanding of Rizzie’s fundamental aesthetic, is to grasp the dual fascination he has with a rather hermetic, even alchemical, element in his signs and symbols—and his love of collage.  There probably doesn’t exist a single Dan Rizzie work that doesn’t have a private, even secret, encryption.  Sometimes we catch the meaning of a repeated form or image (the Tantric circle is fundamental); sometimes it helps when the artist tells us its derivation.  It is fascinating, for instance, to know that the chair in the painting “Mondrian’s Chair” was inspired by a long-pondered photograph of Mondrian’s studio filled with furniture that Mondrian made with his own hands. As for the plethora of other associations, whether apparent or mysterious, in his paintings, drawings, and collages, their aura constitutes a great part of the appeal of Rizzie’s work.

Rizzie deals with the surfaces of things.  Illusionistic space is his enemy.  He wrests light and whimsy and delicacy and wistfulness and depth of knowledge and sensibility, from surfaces.  This is not to be mistaken for superficiality; quite the opposite.  His allusions are complicated and fraught; his passion for poetic visual art, especially in its subtlest forms, declares itself in everything he makes.  It is certainly not necessary, in enjoying this artist’s paintings and drawings, to speculate about their artistic sources; they are enough in their own, inimitable, being.  And enjoying them is what they’re all about.

Rizzie’s work is represented in many public collections, including the Cleveland Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Art; Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Fine Art, Houston; and Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, among others.

Jane Livingston 

CV
2016 - Dan Rizzie, Peter Marcelle Project, Southampton, NY
Print Austin: Dan Rizzie at Flatbed, Flatbed Press, Austin, Texas
2015 - Dan RizzieEditions /Variations , The Drawing Room East Hampton NY
Dan Rizzie: Prints, Collage, Monograph, Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Dan Rizzie, Peter Marcelle Project, Bridgehampton, NY
2014 - Dan Rizzie: Works, Harmon Meek Gallery, Naples, Florida
Dan Rizzie, Peter Marcelle Gallery, Southampton, NY
2013 - A Taste of Rizzie, Sylvester & Co., Sag Harbor, NY
Dan Rizzie: NEW WORKS, Dallas Art Fair, Dallas, Texas
Dan Rizzie, Peter Marcelle Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY
2012 - Dan Rizzie:WORKS, Peter Marcelle Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York
Speed & Rizzie: In One Room, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2011 - Dan Rizzie: Monotypes, Gallery at Amagansett Square, Amagansett, NY
Dan Rizzie Works, Christies Art Center, Sag Harbor, NY
2010 - Dan Rizzie, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, New York
Dan Rizzie, Peter Marcelle Contemporary, Southampton, New York
Dan Rizzie, Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho
Dan Rizzie: The Flatbed Years, Galveston Art Center, Galveston, Texas
2009 - Dan Rizzie: Selected Works, Hampton Road Gallery, Southampton, New York
2008 - Dan Rizzie: Selected Works, Peter Marcelle Contemporary, Southampton, New York
Dan Rizzie – Islandia, Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho
Dan Rizzie, Spanierman Modeern, New York, New York
2007 - Dan Rizzie: Selected Works on Paper 1995-2007, Anne Reed Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho
Dan Rizzie: Paintings, Drawings and Collages, Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Dan Rizzie: Small Works, Christies Gallery, Sag Harbor, New York
2006 - Dan Rizzie: New Work, Hampton Road Gallery, Southampton, New York
Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2005 - Monotipos, Gallery Aurora, San Miguel, Mexico
Dan Rizzie: Postcards from Italy, Armory Art Center, Palm Beach, Florida
Dan Rizzie: New Work, Hampton Road Gallery, Southampton, New York                  
2004 - Dan Rizzie: Ten for Hendrix, Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas
Dan Rizzie: New Paintings, Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Seductive Surfaces, The Ross Institute, East Hampton, New York
2003 - Dan Rizzie: New Work, Lizan Tops Gallery, East Hampton, New York
Dan Rizzie: The Power of Symbols, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas
New Paintings and Collages, Harmon Meeks Gallery, Naples, Florida
2002 - Dan Rizzie, Harmon Meek Gallery, Naples, Florida
Dan Rizzie: New Paintings, Pillsbury Peters Fine Art, Dallas, Texas
Dan Rizzie: New Work, Lizan Tops Gallery, East Hampton, New York
2001 - New Works, Flatbed Gallery, Austin, Texas
New Work, Lizan Tops Gallery, East Hampton, New York
2000 - Rhythms of Nature, Pillsbury Peters Fine Art, Dallas Texas
Dan Rizzie – “A Retrospective”, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, Texas             
1999 - Lizan Tops Gallery, East Hampton, New York
Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1998 - “Dan Rizzie: Works on Paper,” Dueringer Gallery, Jackson, Mississippi
Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1997 - Liz Mayer Fine Art, New York, New York
Allenen Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Lizan Tops Gallery, East Hampton, New York
West End Fine Arts Gallery, West Palm Beach, Florida
1996 - Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Gerald Peters, Dallas, Texas
1995 - Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1994 - Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana
1993 - Helander Gallery, New York, New York
Helander Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida
1992 - Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana
1991 - Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1990 - Allene Lapides Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Eugene Binder Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
Ruth Siegel Gallery, New York, New York
Thomson Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1989 - Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana
Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbour Island, Florida
Eugene Binder Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Ruth Siegel Gallery, New York, New York
1988 - Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana
The Club San Simeon, Dallas, Texas
Eugene Binder Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Ruth Siegel Gallery, New York, New York
1987 - Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbour Island, Florida
Eugene Binder Gallery, Dallas, Texas
1986 - Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana
Ruth Siegel Gallery, New York, New York
Watson Gallery, Houston, Texas
1985 - Carpenter + Hochman Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Gallery LaFayette, New York, New York
1984 - Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco, California
Peregrine Press, Dallas, Texas
1983 - Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, Texas
1982 - Delahunty Gallery, New York, New York
1981 - Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, Texas
Watson de Nagy Gallery, Houston, Texas
1980 - Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas
1979 - Meadows Museum of Art, Shreveport, Louisiana
1978 - Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
Watson de Nagy Gallery, Houston, Texas
1977 - Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, Texas
1975 - University Gallery, Southern Methodist University Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas 

SELECTED COLLECTIONS
American Airlines
American Embassy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
ARCO
AT&T Corporate Center, Chicago, Illinois
Cadillac Fairview
Cigna Investment, Inc., Dallas, Texas
City of Phoenix, Arizona
Cleveland Browns Football Club, Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Crescent Hotel, Dallas, Texas
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
Delta Airlines
El Paso Museum of Art. Texas
Enron Corporation, Houston, Texas
Fidelity Investments
Frito-Lay
Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York
Hendrix College, Conway Arkansas
Hyatt Hotels
LTV Center, Dallas, Texas
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
MBNA America
Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, Arizona
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Mobil Oil
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas
New York Public Library, New York
Nona & Richard Barrett Collection, Texas
Northern Trust Bank of Texas, Houston, Texas
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, Arizona
Sprint Telephone, Dallas, Texas
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
The Ogden Collection, New Orleans, Louisiana
United States Department of State, Washington, D.C.
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas