Northern Being

About Northern Being

This contemporary painting of a walrus is by the Metis artist Rick Rivet.

In his powerful expressionist paintings, Rick Rivet pays homage to his indigenous roots and his early life in the far north. This portrait of a walrus commands attention as the sea mammal appears to be looking directly at the viewer.
Rivet’ s style is distinctive—a unique blend of dream-like imagery that reflects his shamanistic heritage and modernist art forms. Rivet counts among his early influences the expressionist work of modernist painters Rauschenberg, Rothko, and Turner.
The colour palette of this painting evokes the north—the rich earthy brown and blood red of the walrus flecked with white stands out against the layered washes of icy blue and white of the sea. One of a series.

“When I was growing up in the North, I thought that animals were no less important than other life forms in the cosmos.” Rick Rivet

“His work is highly expressive, with mark-making techniques that range from bold slashes to slowly graduated fields of thick colour. Through it all are Rivet’s ruminations on nature, memory, metaphysics and indigenous mythologies.” Portia Priegert

Richard James Rivet was born in Aklavik in the Northwest Territories. He grew up on the land, and his family lived by trapping, hunting and fishing. Rivet has four degrees from three universities. He completed his MFA at the University of Saskatchewan in 1989 and began creating art full-time. Rivet has been the recipient of more than twenty awards, scholarships and bursaries, including a Fellowship from the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, and the Andy Warhol Foundation Fellowship Residency Program for the Heard Museum in Phoenix. His work is exhibited internationally and is held in private, corporate, and public collections in both Canada and the US.