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Hung-Chih posing as Gao-shu
at Pico Sanchez' House, 1999,
mixed media on canvas, 87” x 54”
Rigo 23 (also known as Rigo <year>, for example, Rigo 99), born (1966) Ricardo Gouveia, is a Portuguese muralist, painter, and political artist residing in San Francisco, California. He is known particularly in the San Francisco community for having painted a number of large scale Pop Art inspired "one way" sign murals, such as the "One Tree" mural on the U.S. Route 101 onramp at 10th and Bryant Streets, the "interstate route sign" shaped Innercity/Home adorning an affordable housing high rise in downtown S.F., or the "Sky/Ground" mural at 3rd and Mission Streets.
He is one of the founding members of Clarion Alley Mural Project collective and is still an active member as of 2006 as well as an occasional professor at The San Francisco Art Institute. He has also designed several installations as part of the 2006 Liverpool Biennial. He is considered by some art critics and curators to be part of the first generation of the San Francisco Mission School art movement.
Rigo was born and raised on the Portuguese island of Madeira. He later established himself as an artist in San Francisco, earning a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1991 and an MFA from Stanford University in 1997. From 1984-2002, Rigo used the last two digits of the current year as part of his name, finally settling upon "23" in 2003.
Rigo is committed to working in the public sphere; he believes that by reaching the widest possible audience, art can send a powerful message. Issues Rigo has explored in his work range from the concern for the international worker in the new global economy to the incarceration of political prisoners to the treatment of Native Americans in the United States. An artist-in-residence in such disparate locations as Gotheborg, Sweden, and Taipei, Taiwan, Rigo has typically engaged local communities in his projects, a practice he will employ to great advantage with Human/Nature. The winner of many awards, including the 1999 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s SECA Award, Rigo has shown internationally for the past decade at such venues as Artists’ Space and Deitch Projects in New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago, Chile; Gallery 54 in Gotheborg, Sweden; and BAM/PFA in Berkeley, where he was featured in the museum’s acclaimed MATRIX Program for Contemporary Art.
AWARDS AND HONORS
2007 Howard Fellowship, Brown University, Providence, RI;
Creative Work Fund, Walter and Elise Haas Fund, SF, CA
2006 Eureka Fellowship, Fleishhacker Foundation, CA
1999 Biennal Award, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New York, NY
1998 SECA Art Award, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
1997 Stoli, San Francisco Arts Achievement Award Secession Gallery, Visual Art Residency
Fellowship Award, Taiwan
1996 One Tree, Best Public Art Project of the Year, San Francisco Bay Guardian
1994 WESTF/NEA Regional Fellowshipfor Visual Arts
1991 Chauncey McKeever Award, San Francisco Art Institute
EDUCATION
1997 MFA, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
1991 BFA, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010 Achivhírak (Place of the Birds), Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
2009 New Museum, New York, NY
2007 “Backtracking 199485,” Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, CA
“Rigo 23,” Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Niteroi, Brazil
2006 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
Centro Das Artes, Madeira Island, Portugal
ZDB, Lisbon, Portugal
Movimentos Dos Atingidos por Barragens, Brasília, Brazil
2002 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
2001 Artists Space, New York, NY
"Making Made in Taiwan 3," IT Park Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
2000 "Tate Wikikuwa (The Wind Follows the Sun)," Museum of Contemporary Art, Santiago, Chile
1999 "SECA Art Award Exhibition," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
"Rigo ’99\MATRIX 179," University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
"Making Made in Taiwan 2," Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
1998 "O Carro do Sabao azul, " Galeria Porta 33, Project Room, Arco '98, Madrid, Spain
"Making Made in Taiwan," Gallery 54, Gotheborg, Sweden
1997 "Chance Birds," Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
"In Justice to Geronimo and the Thousands," WLCAC, Watts, Los Angeles, CA
"Ohlone Prayers," The Luggage Store, San Francisco, CA
1996 "Time and Time Again," Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
"Enquanto Os Golfinhos Nao Voltam Ao Tejo:," Galeria Graca Fonseca, Lisboa, Portugal
1995 "American Landscapes," Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, CA
1994 Largo do Canto do Muro, Galeria Porta 33, Madeira Island, Portugal
"Westward," The Living Room, San Francisco, CA
"Black and White Drawings," Refusalon, San Francisco, CA
"Eagles," The LAB Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1992 "AdProp-One Dream Come Two," Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1989 "Retratos Y Situaciones," Pancho Villa Taqueria, San Francisco, CA
1987 "Some People In a Visual Environment," Artist’s Television Access, San Francisco, CA
1986 "Primeira Impressão," Espaco Poligrupo-Renascena, Lisboa, Portugal
1985 "First Print," Martin-Weber Gallery, San Francisco, CA
COMMISSIONS AND MURALS
2005 “Victory Stand,” San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
“Jardim Panoramico do Funchal”, Madeira Island, Portugal
2004 “Praça do Dragao”, Oporto Soccer Stadium, Oporto, Portugal
“Luz, Amistad y Libertad”, Alamar, Cuba
“Not For Sale”, Belfast, Northern Ireland
“Birdman of Bali,” Denpasar, Bali
2002 "Truth," Mission & 7th Streets, San Francisco, CA
2000 "Boneca be Massa," Madeira Island International Airport, Portugal
"Children," 22nd & Harrison Streets, San Francisco, CA
1999 "Museum Pieces," M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA
"Computers/Prisons," University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
1998 "SKY/GROUND," Third & Mission Streets, San Francisco, CA
"Colors II," San Francisco International Airport, sponsored by the San Francisco Art
Commission Longe/Perto, Expo '98, Stone Mosaic pedestrian strip, Lisboa, Portugal
1997 "Ocean," sponsored by IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK
"Birds/Cars," San Francisco, CA, privately sponsored
"Approximately 3/4 Water," Sponsored by the Creative Work Fund and CAMP San
Francisco, CA
1995 "Extinct," San Francisco, CA
"One Tree," Sponsored by Capp Street Project and the Gerbode Foundation, San
Francisco, CA
"Indian Water," San Francisco, CA
"Time," Sponsored by the San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA
1994 "Art in the Urban Landscape," A project of Capp Street and the Gerbode Foundation,
San Francisco, CA
"Inner City Home," San Francisco, CA
"Southern Exposure Mural Project," Collaboration with Barry McGee and Brett Cook,
San Francisco, CA
Jubilee West Thrift Shop, Collaboration with Jubilee West and East Bay Conservation
Corps, Oakland, CA
"Peace," International Studies Academy High School, Collaboration with school’s art
students, San Francisco, CA
"Market Street/Art in Transit" San Francisco Art Commission
"Muni Fences," San Francisco Art Commission
1993 "River" Installed inside Pancho Villa Taqueria, San Francisco, CA
"No Smoke Screens/No Color Lines," collaboration with S.Y.T.E.P. youth team, Oakland, CA
"Colors," Balmy Avenue Mural Project, San Francisco, CA
1992 "500 Years of What?" Installed inside Pancho Villa Taqueria, San Francisco, CA
1990 "P. K. Dick," Collaboration with Scott Williams, Installed inside DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA
"Defaced," Collaboration with Scott Williams, Inside walls, DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA
1989 "Pajaro En La Avenida," Executed at CAVI-Centro de Artes Visuales,
Universidad Autonoma de Nayarit, Installed at the Governors’ palace of Nayarit, Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico
1988 "Richmond Liberty Ferry," Retaining wall, Barret Avenue Underpass at Marina Way,
City of Richmond Arts Commission, Richmond, CA
"Who Says What?" Outside, Show and Tell Gallery, San Francisco, CA
"Comunicacao," Interior wall, CTT Mercado Post Office, Funchal, Maderia Island, Portugal
1987 "Yeah, Sure, Where," Inside wall, DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA
"A Tribute to Rick Grizzly Brown," Installed outside Walter McBean Gallery,
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1986 "Tempo, Som, Arte," Outside wall, Club Nine, San Francisco, CA
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
PARTNERS COLLECTION
RIGO 99
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