Collection: Allison Rietta

Allison Rietta’s work combines spirituality, nature and architecture in bold artistic pieces. Her work explores sacred—or mystic geometry—tapping into the magic of imagination and the subconscious mind as she creates pieces that sometimes energize and other times soothe. Working mainly with watercolours and acrylics on paper or wood panels, Allison plays with layers as she riffs with textures, colours, and the interplay between shapes and forms. Her pieces embrace the disparate as she threads seemingly random line and colours into works that can be simultaneously “put apart” and “taken apart” by the mind’s eye. Her art answers the question of “When do you put it together?” and “When do you take it apart?” 

Intuitive-based, she thrives on the thrill of starting with nothing as she moves from an abstract mark or gesture of moving parts that eventually coalesce in inimitable expressions in her work.

Rietta’s first solo exhibition, “Inflorescence,” was in Toronto at the Image Foundry in October 2021. Inflorescence comes from the Latin word, ‘inflorescere,’ which means to flower or begin to flower. Simple intuition—and a circle—is how each piece starts. In some pieces, architectural elements such as an arc are evident, while in others, lines shift as if being turned in a kaleidoscope—at first messy, but then “stopping” as they settle into dazzling representations of graphicness. Water-tinted colours create a sense of dappled light as she weaves them into patterns and shapes. Drawing on the mystic sound of her Himalayan singing bowls, pieces exude melodic vibrations in which colours transcend the visual into the auditory. Beginning with a single colour, she layers to control opacity, creating pieces that hold both “veildness” and “transparency.”

One piece comes to life in a gesture of fire and frenzy—another, with delicate and deliberate attention.