David Rice paints like an Old Master who grew up on comic books. His portraits, animals and still lifes carry Vermeer's light, soft and exact, then drop into bold geometric fields, patterned drapes and slabs of flat color. The collision is the point: the natural world against the made one, a real face against a designed shape.
Public art has such a wider audience than gallery art, because it is brought to the viewer.
He grew up in Aspen, Colorado, and the Rockies never left the work. Bears, owls, pronghorn and birds turn up again and again, alongside flowers and draped fabric. Mostly self-taught, he got his first real painting training in a year-long apprenticeship with Portland muralist Blaine Fontana in 2013. Since then he has painted from Seattle to Sweden, including Bird Call, the largest mural in Beaverton.
At Hopscotch his wall is New Topography: a softly lit portrait of a man on deep blue, beside a towering drape of orange and white zigzag fabric, with pale flowers and a butterfly crossing the frame. In his words, “This piece is an exploration of identity through nature and man made elements.” Walls Within, curated with Portland Street Art Alliance, at Hopscotch Portland.
