Interview
Pierre Riche
Pierre Riche was born in NYC, and has been creating one-of-a-kind welded metal artwork sculptures. He attended The Art Institute of Chicago.
He lived in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he was a member of the Provincetown art association museum for several years, and apprenticed with Chicago sculptor John Kearney. Some of Pierre's multimedia drawings were collected and added to the well-known Regie Cabral art collection. Riche has exhibited his work both locally and internationally, and has received a number of awards for his art. When he moved to Woodstock, New York, he exhibited his life-sized guitar player sculptures at the Woodstock 25th anniversary concert. That ‘Guitar Man’ sculpture was purchased and placed at Aerosmith's private club, Mama Kin in Boston Massachusetts.
In 2017, Pierre was elected Head of the Scotts Valley Arts committee and curated The Scotts Valley annual Arts Walk for two years. Pierre strives to fabricate the most unique and exciting sculptures and functional art possible.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“By the time I reached high school, I knew I didn’t want to do anything else with my life but make art, though I wasn’t sure exactly what that looked like. While attending the Art Institute of Chicago, I became interested in making figure sculptures. All of the materials I thought I could use were either too expensive, too fragile, or not permanent enough. I finally settled on using a pile of scrap metal and an inexpensive arc welder to launch a lifelong journey into a fine art sculpting career.”
What inspires you?
“I get inspired when I’m making art. I don’t know what I am capable of making, so the process of building a vision is very inspiring. It’s the act of creation and being in that place where creativity becomes form. That’s the energy and joy I live for.”
“By using scrap metal as a sculpture medium, I show how the present moment is a conglomeration of past thoughts, feelings, emotions and actions. Every used piece of metal represents a story from the past.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“The underlying theme in my work is the human form expressing the journey of the soul. Some of these figurines express dynamic energy, athletic prowess, physical strength, balance and grace of movement, realism, and motion and emotion. I also create large and small faces and head sculptures. Another theme I explore is small and large horses.
The driving message I’m trying to convey is that mankind is broken by nature, but there is hope. The recycled metal objects are repurposed and given a new life. They no longer represent their original use. A transformation has occurred, and the hope is in the new creation and interpretation; the symbolic metamorphosis from old to new, from dysfunctional to salvation.”
How would you describe your work?
“This type of artwork I’m doing is traditionally referred to as direct metal welded figurative sculpture. It’s direct because it’s all hand-worked, unlike a bronze casting where the original form is worked in clay or wax. With bronze casting, the finished metal artwork is then made from a mold taken from that original form.
Direct metal sculpting is very hands-on and labor intensive. This is important because in wrestling with the metal to achieve the desired results, the artist’s soul, emotions, intentions and spirit get transferred into the previously inanimate material. In so doing, I create a realistic balance between abstract industrial metal parts and the human body.”
Which artists influence you most?
“My earliest inspiring artist was Salvadore Dali for his prolifically surreal artistic expression of everything he did. Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the Italian master sculptor was, and is a figurative marble carver master. Jean Tinguely blew my mind with his welded mechanical kinetic abstract sculptures, some of which merged into architecture and beyond. Antoni Gaudi was a Barcelona architect, but still a big sculptural influence and inspiration. Andy Scott would be my most inspiring modern welded metal artist, mostly for the achievement of scale.”
What is your creative process like?
“Once the inspiration grabs me enough to want to invest the effort into a sculpture, I find and print out an image to use. For a figure or animal, I look at my printed image and study it. I make the skeletal armature first and tack weld it to a surface for stability. Then the armature gets bent and adjusted to support the pose I’m going for. After I feel it’s accurate enough, I weld all the small pieces of metal to fill out a shell of the form. I have small and large bins of assorted metal parts from which I choose what I want to use. I use different welding and cutting processes depending on what type of metal I’m using.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“I see the artist’s role in society as that of waking up those who are spiritually asleep by presenting them with what is truthful. To represent a glimpse of a hopeful reality that is a possibility of something not yet recognized. To express love and appreciation through creation and creativity in it’s rawest form.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“The most noteworthy show I have had was at Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center in NYC. My work was represented by several NYC art galleries, and sold through Sotheby's auction house.
Other exhibitions and awards have been:
2021:
Santa Cruz 135th County fair. ‘Salvaged Horse’ sculpture received first place, best in show, and best in division awards. The horse sculpture was purchased and placed in Reno NV. as a public sculpture.
2018:
Canes France Art Fair. First international art gallery representation at the Gaudi Gallery in Madrid, Spain.
2015:
Oakwilde Ranch and sculpture juried sculpture show, Spring Valley Ca. ‘Gears of Thought’ sculpture awarded best in show.
2012:
Exhibited one of my fire sculptures in front of the LA MOMA and another large sculpture later that year in the Santa Cruz MAH museum.
1994:
Woodstock 25th Anniversary Concert. Life-sized guitar player sculptures.”
