Photograph by Don Freeman
BIO/ARTIST STATEMENT
BIO
Raghubir Kintisch (b. 1955, New York, NY) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the confluence of spiritual and creative practices. Their richly colored and textural oil paintings on paper are based on sketches made by using collaging and patterning techniques that explore alternative universes, nature, and the inner mental terrain.
Kintisch earned a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI in 1976, and an MFA in Social Practice from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, CA in 2017. The artist has participated in exhibitions at La Foret Museum, Tokyo, Japan; LAXART, Hollywood, LA; Keystone Art Gallery, LA; Robert Berman Gallery, LA; Merry Karnowsky Gallery, LA; Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena; Winslow Garage, LA; Kleinert-James Gallery, Woodstock, NY; Proxy Gallery, LA; MutMuz Gallery, LA; Angels Gate Cultural Center Gallery, San Pedro, LAUNCH Gallery in LA, and Tryst Art Fair in Torrence; among others.
In 2017-2018, Kintisch participated in a long-running group show at the Museum of Modern Art in N.Y. titled Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978– 1983. In the summers of 2022 - 2024, Kintisch was a Byrdcliffe Artist-in-Residence in Woodstock, NY receiving funding from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation to attend in 2023. In 2021, Kintisch was a recipient of the Silver Sun Foundation Residency, also in Woodstock. Their most recent work consists of oil paintings created as diptychs or triptychs, mixed media collage, and tonal paintings in India ink; all of which utilize texture, vibrant color, and reflected geometry and pattern. Kintisch currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My projects delve into the realm of mystical abstraction through a fusion of photography, collaging techniques, and oil painting - giving form to many of the esoteric ideas I am working with. Drawing inspiration from such diverse sources as paranormal and supernatural events, self-portraiture and personal history, and natural and organic life forms, I create mental terrains that evolve from deep transformative experience. This past year I have focused primarily on nature as both inspiration and metaphor to explore the mysterious and mystical instincts and predicaments that are intrinsic to the human experience.
The polestar of my art making has always been the confluence of creative and spiritual practices. By amalgamating fragments of images and utilizing the patterns and new forms that emerge, this playful re-iteration accelerates my creative process and forces the accidental distortion that is a surprise result of this sketching phase. The subject matter of my paintings ends up somewhere between representation and abstraction and also references my past relationships with the decorative arts and yogic science.
The paintings themselves are richly colored and textured - a result of working with undiluted oil paint and palette knives on heavy-duty textured watercolor paper. A vibrant and dry matte surface results when this kind of mark making is absorbed directly into the surface of the paper. I generally paint in groups of two or three and prefer to present them as diptychs, triptychs or in much larger multiple groupings. I have found that a personal iconography develops during the course of making multiple works that, like an alphabet, begin to have layered meaning when seen in relation to each other.