Chris Riccardo & Friends

Join us at The Art Spirit Gallery for the Opening Reception of "Chris Riccardo & Friends"--Beth Cavener, Alessandro Gallo, Giselle Hicks, Maggie Finlayson, Tom Jaszczak, Noah Riedel, and Chuck Aydlett from 5-8 on Friday the 13th of February. Enjoy a lively evening of fine art, fine chocolate, good music and good friends in Downtown Coeur d'Alene.

Chris Riccardo will give an informal demonstration starting at 1:00 in the gallery on Saturday, February 14.

This show is sponsored by Crafted Tap House & Kitchen at 540 Sherman Avenue in Downtown Coeur d'Alene. We thank them for their good beer, exquisite food, fine hospitality and for their commitment to the arts of our region.

Chris Riccardo received his BFA in sculpture from the College of Fine Arts at Boston University in 1990. In 1995, Chris went on to open his own commercial bronze-casting foundry, RDK Studios in West Palm Beach, FL. It is there that Riccardo honed his skills and began teaching figurative sculpture at the nearby Armory Art Center. Shortly after, he decided to sell his foundry and concentrate on his work and teaching.  In 2007, Chris was named the Director of the Sculpture Department and Foundry Manager.

Later that year, Chris had the opportunity to work with famed ceramic artist, and alum of The Art Spirit Gallery, Beth Cavener Stichter (now Beth Cavener), when she came to the Armory to conduct a workshop. After watching and working alongside her, he became enamored with the art of clay, and began creating figures that were one-of-a-kind. For years his color palette had been that of the limited bronze patina finishes, "but getting to work in clay opened up new doors to my work, with the unlimited color palette available with glazes," said Riccardo. These new discoveries led him to a residency with the Archie Bray Foundation in 2012, and that led him to fall in love with Helena, Montana. "After 20 years at the Armory Art Center it was time for me to make some changes and my children were at a good age to make the big move across the country" said Riccardo.

More recently, Chris has joined again with artist Beth Cavener and her husband, Alessandro Gallo in Helena to create the Studio 740 - housed in a 98 year old seed and feed warehouse. It is here that Chris is developing his new vision of work.

Joining Riccardo will be artists Beth Cavener, Alessandro Gallo and Giselle Hicks from Studio 740, along with Maggie Finlayson, Tom Jaszczak & Chuck Aydlett--past & current residents of the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts in Helena, Montana.  

• Beth Cavener is currently a full-time professional studio artist working in the state of Montana. She received her BA in sculpture from Haverford College and her MFA from Ohio State University. She was awarded the Artist Trust Fellowship in 2009, the Jean Griffith Foundation Fellowship in 2006, the Virginia A.Groot Foundation Grant and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council in 2005, and the American Craft Council's Emerging Artist Fellowship in 2004.  She has also been an Artist-in-Residence at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia and the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT. She has exhibited nationally (at such institutions as the Smithsonian Museum) and internationally and has taught numerous workshops across the country. She is currently represented by Clark + DelVecchio in Santa Fe, NM and has just recently embarked on creating a group professional studio space under the name Studio 740 in Helena, MT.

• Alessandro Gallo was born in 1974 in Genoa, Italy and is now based in Helena, Montana. After studying Law at the University of Genoa, Gallo took a foundation course at Saint Martin's College of Art in London followed by a BA at Chelsea School of Art, graduating in 2002. While studying painting, he began experimenting with digital photography, manipulating images to create scenes of animals in familiar city settings. By 2005, he decided to give his creatures a physical presence by sculpting them from clay. Gallo's works have been featured in the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. In 2012, he received a first place grant from the Virginia A. Groot Foundation. He is currently exhibiting at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York.

• Giselle Hicks -Originally from California, Giselle received her BFA from Syracuse University and MFA from NYSCC of Ceramics at Alfred University in New York. She has participated in various artist-in-residence programs including the Anderson Ranch Art Center, the Arts/Industry Program at the Kohler Company, The Clay Studio in Philadelphia and The Archie Bray Foundation. Her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Belger Arts Center in Kansas City, The John Michael Kohler Art Center and The Bellevue Art Museum and the Southwest School of Art.

• Maggie Finlayson grew up in Ontario, Canada, and completed her undergraduate studies in Ceramics in British Columbia and Alberta Canada. She has participated in residency programs at The Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and Medalta Pottery, and recently completed her Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics at The University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Her sculptural work uses simple and familiar materials - clay, iron, wood, leather, hair and bone, etc., to examine the impact of everyday objects in our lives.
• Chuck Aydlett received his training from the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University (BFA '84, MFA '90). Recent exhibitions include "Literally and Figuratively" (Santa Fe Clay), "Transcending the Figure" (Dairy Barn Art Center), and the "Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition" (Northern Clay Center). Examples of his most recent work can be seen in both Ceramics, Art and Perception (Issues 76 &78, 2009) and Ceramics Monthly (Jan, 2010). Chuck has been on faculty at Pennsylvania State University ('91-'98), and Winona State University ('00-'09). Presently Chuck manages the Clay Business at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts. 
  
  
• Tom Jaszczak received a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Art and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Bemidji State University. After graduating, Tom apprenticed at Mill Creek Pottery for a year and learned the process of wood firing. Following he was an artist in Residence at the Cub Creek Foundation. Tom grew up in Minneapolis, MN and returned in 2010 where he was the recipient of a Jerome Project Grant through the Northern Clay Center and a Minnesota Arts Board Grant. He has been an assistant to Tara Wilson and a summer resident at The Armory Art Center in Florida and the Archie Bray Foundation. Most recently he started a Long Term residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, MT and has been focusing on developing a red earthenware soda fired body of work.