By Melina Paris, Contributing Writer
With two exhibits in as many continents in less than one year, emerging artist Vaughan Risher is realizing his ambitions. His first exhibit Colorful Greys showed in London, December 2016.
Risher has a certain purpose in a new exhibit entitled Calyx at TAJ ART Gallery. It is to highlight the beauty in things that we tend to take for granted.
Calyx is an exhibit of photographic artworks at TAJ ART in Eagle Rock, showing June 17 to July 1. Risher, 38, is a multimedia artist working in photography, paint, digital collage, graphic art and film. He notes that all of these different mediums and technologies interact.
Just as those mediums and technologies intermingle, our own interaction with nature is the driving force of Calyx. A selection of photographs from four artists serves to mark the artistry of Mother Nature herself. Ted Dayton, Kaz Kipp, Edgar Kim and Vaughan Risher will each bring to light the beauty of our world with their artworks.
Part of the curator’s statement notes, Calyx delves into the beauty found in nature all around us, while simultaneously evoking the beauty within the viewer.
We often overlook this connection to beauty within both nature and ourselves. It is precisely that — the sometimes overlooked — that Risher strives to illuminate in his works.
“There’s a clear sense of innocence and wonder in the query of his practice; it’s almost as if he is seeing his subject for the first time ever,” said Erika Hirugami, the exhibition curator. “I had the privilege to see him shoot some of the images selected for the show and he is restless. He will examine the subject until he achieves something rarely seen….. From my days at [Museum of Latin American Art], I have truly grown to believe that there are amazing artists in Long Beach and I am happy that I get to highlight the work of one of them.”
Risher has four works in Calyx. In each one, light is prominently featured. His late father, Christopher Risher, a renowned architect and artist, and his artist mother, Catherine Howard Vaughan, raised the young Risher to appreciate light.
While obtaining a fine arts degree in filmmaking, he developed a defect in his field of vision after a grueling 70-hour music video editing session. Ghostly double images started to appear whenever he looked at bright lights, causing him to feel lost in what he referred to as “a sea of glow.” Eventually, after spending some months distressed, this feeling of loss didn’t become more acute. Instead, he became fascinated by it, using it to provoke and stimulate his artistry.
Every time he saw the color of white light — which he clarified was actually a range of colors — he would see the actual color of light rather than just white. After seeing colors of light combined with his experience of ghosting, he felt he had a unique vision of the world even though his vision had been compromised. He wants to share this vision in his photos.
“It’s a study in contrast, how light works with the world,” Risher said. “We see light because of dark.”
Multimedia artist Doug Aitken is a great inspiration to Risher. Upon attending Aitken’s show Electric Earth at the Museum of Contemporary Art at Geffen this past year, Risher felt an instant kinship. He said Aitkin blended a mastery of cinematography and sound design with technical precision and sophistication to realize a masterpiece of modern conceptual art.
Aitken’s achievements were inspirational to Risher.
“Throughout his career, he blended disciplines whenever he could and worked in every medium that caught his interest,” Risher said. “Though he had photography at the show, he wasn’t a photographer. Though he had sculpture at the show, he wasn’t a sculptor. Though he had film at the show, he wasn’t a filmmaker. At the same time, he was all of those things.
“Although I am in the beginning stages of my art career, I see my goals the same way, above and beyond the medium in which I work.”
Visual elegance is captured in the photography within Calyx. All of the photographs are one of a kind pieces, none of which will ever be printed again to sell.
TAJ ART Gallery is a participant in the Pacific Standard Time LA/LA, (Latin American and Latino Art in Los Angeles). It exhibits works by renowned and emerging artists. A closing reception is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. July 1 at Taj Art Studio Gallery, 1492 Colorado Blvd. in Los Angeles.
Details: http://vaughanrisher.com, www.curatorlove.com/calyx, www.tajartinc.com