Guy-Vincent Ricketti

Guy-Vincent Ricketti, an award-winning artist with 20 years experience, trained at both the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Columbus School of Design. Like many artists, he's worked the gamut of jobs in the artworld, from freelance design to photosetting to corporate consulting. Internationally acclaimed, his recent exhibitions include La Vie Moderne which traveled to Rome, Termoli, and Spoleto, Italy. He opened his gallery Elevation Art in Cleveland in Spring of 2004. This week, Elevation Art presents Chroma, a solo exhibition featuring the vibrant and dynamic prints and paintings of retired Cleveland Institute of Art instructor Julian Stanczak, world renowned for his work as a perceptual abstractionist. The opening reception is this Fri 4/22 from 5:30-9:30PM. The exhibition continues through 5/20. Also showing are Italian artists Bruno Aller, Aldo Bertolini, Achille Pace, and Gualtiero Savelli along side of Cleveland filmmaker Robert Banks' new abstract film Kinetic Chroma that explores the depth and visceral explorations of color and movement. Cool Cleveland CIO George Nemeth spoke with Ricketti about tech and developing an avant-garde gallery in Cleveland that's exploring arts and business relationships internationally.

Cool Cleveland: Have you always used Macs?
Guy Vincent Ricketti: Yeah, always Macs. I'm pretty new to computers. The first G4 that came out, that's what I have upstairs, then I have the iBook. Now I ready for the Powerbook. I could use a dual-processor 2.5 gig for crunchin' up big files. [I see you've got] an iBook? [Referring to my laptop] The 14" inch iBook. I like it. I'm goin' for the Powerbook next. I need to do video editing, so I need to kick it up a notch with the G4.

Do you consider yourself more of a multi-media artist?
Yes, different mediums at this point.

Have you always been in Cleveland?
After college I moved to Los Angeles, but I was born in the City of Cleveland and have lived in the surrounding suburbs.

Do you miss LA?
No. Not at all. I like Cleveland. It's a good place to raise a family. A lot of great things. As an art dealer, and an artist, I guess my current perspective is to bring vibrancy to the art scene here. That's really what I want to work on. I've been going to lectures and meeting people where this is a topic. There was recently a lecture at the Cleveland Institute of Art about living locally, working globally. That was a starting point in the dialog.

Was it well attended?
It was moderately attended. The panel session was OK, but afterwards, it was awesome. We had a chance to sit down and do some real learning and sharing.

Great distinction between the event and the community participation. I have a sense that what you're trying to do is elevate the art community and Cleveland artists internationally. Is that why your gallery is named Elevation Art, or is it serendipitous?

A little of both. It was definitely a cognitive decision to use 'elevation' to send out a message, but as it's an organic process, much like creating a work of art. You have a concept, you start working on it, things change, happy accidents as it were. Sometimes it's a little different then you thought, sometimes it's a lot different. I've learned a lot doing this gallery in the past year. The idea of elevating Cleveland artists, there are great artists here. I recently went to the Armory Exhibition in NYC, and our artists here can compete with anyone. It's a matter of having the voice, the forum locally, combining all the elements - the artists, the dealers, the collectors - getting a common goal, and uniting what's been so disparate in Cleveland, just from a logistics standpoint, even. There are galleries spread out all over Cleveland. I'm also exploring international relationships right now.

How did you develop those?
Some of them were the results of exhibitions in Italy. I'm talking to the curator of the museum of contemporary art in Zagreb, Croatia. I sent him some work from a couple artists in Cleveland, and we're having a dialog to see if we can do something. Part of my plan is to get the work of Cleveland artists out there in the world, and to get their work here and expose it to Cleveland. It'll consist of emerging artists just out of school, and seasoned veterans, like Julian Stanczak.

That's very cool. Let's talk about your upcoming show. Julian Stanczak is the world renown perceptual abstractionist who lives in Seven Hills.
I was invited to participate in a private show that brought a number of artists together. His wife Barbara was in the show and had one of his pieces there. I looked at it and was just blown away by its incredible sense of color; it was quite a compelling piece. I asked myself, "What's he doing these days"? I invited Barbara Stanczak to be in the Water exhibition, and when I met Julian, I really enjoyed the rapport with him. He invited me to his home, where we selected the prints I'm showing, so I got to see the personal side of him. As I talked to people, some people had him as an instructor, or had him in their collections. I talked to him today and thanked him for this new piece I'm thrilled to have...

What's it called?
20 Reds. It has 16"x16" panels and there are 20 of them - 5 across and 4 down. It's a really powerful piece. He knew that I wanted to show a really current piece to complement and balance the prints, which are from the '70s and '80s. I wanted to show where he was, and where he's at now. Plus, I wanted to show the different mediums - how they relate and how they differ. He really did me a favor because he's really busy with retrospective shows. He's being very prolific now that he's retired from the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Photos and Interview by Cool Cleveland's Information Officer George Nemeth george@coolcleveland.com

Elevation Art, 1240 Huron Road, 5th Floor. Call 430-2751. http://www.elevationart.com Chroma is sponsored by Forum Architects. (:divend:)