Andrew Riss

Andrew Riss grew up in a suburban town in Long Island, NY. Andrew’s first contact with art, as something that living people made, was on a trip to the Art Students League in New York City, where he began taking figure drawing classes. Immediately the teacher told Andrew he didn't know what he was doing, which luckily, Andrew took as a compliment.
Andrew went on to study painting at the Hartford Art School, where he became enamored by expressionist painters like Francesco Clemente, Phillip Guston, and Anselm Kiefer. Since graduationg in 1991, Riss has worked as an artist, running his own on-air graphics company, while maintaining his interest in exploring painting. For Andrew, making art is about un-learning many of the things we believe we know as adults.

Riss describes what he’s exploring in his current body of work, “I have always been both interested and confused by the concept of the body as a vessel. That’s why I like to play with the idea of head as funnel or loud speaker.” These paintings of heads, headphones, horns and speakers are figurative, while retaining a quasi-primitive/comic appearance. There’s an emotional rawness to these mysterious captivating paintings.

Andrew Riss will be showing his work along with Dennis Young, September 10 thru September 26, 2011.