Kate Riegler draws from the traditions
of Surrealism and Folk Art to craft riviting personal icons that
record her life experiences in resonant symbols. She assembles
diverse, often aged materials and arranges them into complex
constructions. She seduces the viewer by revealing her creative
process and thus taps into the collective unconscious where symbols
are transformed from autobiographical details to universal truths.
A gifted painter as well a talented sculptor,
Riegler combines both media in objects that demand viewer interaction.
Sometimes this interaction is intellectual, as in puzzle like
games where visual clues are scattered across the composition,
inviting the viewer to "solve" the mystery of the art
and thereby determining meaning. At other times, the interaction
is physical, inviting the viewer to touch and inspect the evocative
forms revealed within its richly layered surface. In both cases
the knowing is intuitive. Riegler's work tells without narrative,
it implies in a visual language rather than explaining in text.
Betty Brown
Art Historian
