Bio
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Rick Kitagawa is a visual artist based out of the foggy hills of San Francisco, California. He is a multi-disciplinary artist who paints in acrylic, gouache, and watercolor, illustrates in photoshop, and prints with silkscreen, linocuts, and letterpress. Rick's work deals primarily with juxtaposition – the fantastical with the ordinary, imagery with text, contemporary with classic. The subjects of his prints and paintings range from cryptozoology to board games, from everyday objects and people to purple whales, from puns to politics. Often utilizing text to complicate/simplify/expound on the imagery, his work is often humorous but can contain deeper socio-political messages. |
Born and raised in Stockton, Rick moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to pursue his Bachelor’s in Integrative Biology with a minor in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. After obtaining his degree, he left Berkeley for San Francisco, where he studied fine art and illustration at the Academy of Art University.
Rick currently resides in San Francisco with his partner and fellow artist Eve Skylar. Together they run Monkey + Seal Press. Rick also runs a wedding invitation consulting company named Little Yeti and teaches wedding invitation, bookbinding, and paper engineering classes for Paper Source Fillmore. Additionally he helps organize the Handmade Ho Down urban craft fair, the San Francisco Zine Fest, and the Paper Hat Production art extravaganzas.
Artist's Statement
Cut. Paste. Reassemble. My work is an amalgamation of my daily life – my subjects range from strategy board games to the deconstruction (and reconstruction) of idioms, from feminist theory to internet memes, from imaginary life forms to modern politics. I synthesize my daily life and piece the parts together to express these cultural collages through my paintings and prints.
After studying Asian American studies and feminism at UC Berkeley, I have gained a greater understanding about the power of linguistics and the way that society as a whole perceives, creates, and understands hierarchies. Whether it be the hierarchy of painting styles, subject matter, language, race, gender, or the hierarchy of image versus text, I want to deconstruct these socialized norms and create a cognitive dissonance by utilizing creative combinations and reordering of these individual elements within each hierarchy.
I am interested in the nature of human beings. In my work I seek to instill an emotion, a provocation, a reaction. In the gleaming hyper-stimulated world we live in, whether it be for good or for ill, I wish to spark a visceral reaction to my work.
-Rick Kitagawa
January 1, 2010
Resume
Group Exhibitions
2010
"Alien/ation" - SPACE Gallery, San Francisco
"2010 Spring Show" - Academy Art University, San Francisco
“Out of Place” - SPACE Gallery, San Francisco
Artist’s Alley - Animation on Display 2010, San Francisco
2009
Handmade Ho Down - Ten15, San Francisco
Exhibitor/featured artist - SF Zine Fest, San Francisco
Selected Client List
Hyphen Magazine
Asian American Theater Company
OSU’s Fisheries and Wildlife Graduate Student Association
One4All Theater Company
Solar Powered Solutions, LLC
Connections Unlimited, LLC
Affiliations
Academy of Art University Press Collective - Founding Vice-President
Monkey + Seal Press - Co-founder
Little Yeti - Lead Designer and Owner
Paper Hat Productions - Co-founder
Workshops
2010
Learn to Box - Paper Source Fillmore
Wedding Day Details - Paper Source Fillmore
Wedding Invitations - Paper Source Fillmore
Creative Card Making - Paper Source Fillmore
2009
The Art of the Pop-Up - Paper Source Fillmore
Basic Bookbinding - Paper Source Fillmore & Marina
Bookbinding Basics and Beyond - SF Zine Fest
Altered Books - Paper Source Fillmore
Employment
2009 - present: Freelance graphic designer and illustrator
2009 - present: Workshop Instructor - Paper Source
2006 - present: Invitation Coordinator/Shift Supervisor - Paper Source
2008 - 2009: Design Associate - Minted.com
Education
2010 - B.F.A. - Academy of Art University, Fine Art & Illustration
2006 - B.A. - UC Berkeley, Integrative Biology & Asian American Studies
References
References available upon request