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Riitta Klint: Gaia’s Wedding
October 6, 2018 - October 27, 2018
Free
On exhibit: October 6 – 26, 2018
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 6, 4 PM – 7 PM
Artists Talk: Friday, October 12, 11 AM
ACA Downtown: Arts on Douglas, Feature Gallery
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday 10 AM – 5 PM, Saturday 10 AM – 4 PM
Learn more at artsondouglas.net
Riitta Klint’s paintings are ethereal and complex, beginning with thin veils of paint that drip, pool and congeal, and mimic nature, organic and unrestrained. Klint works intuitively and impulsively within these initial drips and pools, and each successive stroke of paint or pencil mark continues to build a dreamlike otherworldly place. The mood is one of nature untamed; mysterious, beautiful, and rife with hidden secrets. Klint describes her work as hybrid dreamscapes of all the places she has lived and seen, married together in a somewhat uneasy, yet harmonious union.
Riitta is from Helsinki, Finland and currently lives and maintains a studio in Miami, Florida. Between these two places is a lifetime spent traveling the world thanks to her father’s career with IBM. Living in her native Finland, as well as in Iran, Portugal, Indonesia, Germany, Mexico, and the United States, together with extensive travel in Asia and Europe has shaped her unique vision and palette. Her work offers the viewer a front seat to that journey, and a threshold to cross over into their own imagination.
After earning her BS degree in Fashion Design and Textiles from the University of Texas at Austin, Klint spent years working and traveling around the United States, most notably as Human Resources Director for a nationally known restaurant chain. “I enjoyed my work and all the connections I made, however, I knew that my ultimate purpose was to pursue a life and a career as an artist”, says Riitta. “I took art classes in the evenings, spent hours in galleries and museums, feeding my true passion”. After moving to Florida in 1999, she went back to school and received her BFA degree from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, and finally realized her dream. “ I took a chance, left my job, and never looked back.” Klint works primarily in acrylic and pencil on Claybord™, smooth kaolin clay covered panels that offer the ideal surface for her manipulation of color and medium. The magical alchemy that occurs, the constant transformation of material into fantasy, beckons the viewer to keep returning to pick up a new thread in a continuing conversation with the work.
She is currently represented by the Kelley Roy Gallery in Miami, and Arts on Douglas in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. She also recently completed a commissioned project for the Pinnacle Housing Group’s Vista Mar building in Miami. Learn More