K.G. Ricci is a New York City-based artist whose work embodies the intersection of literature, philosophy, and visual expression. A self-taught creative, Ricci first encountered the transformative potential of collage in 2015 when he began experimenting with cut-and-paste improvisations. What began as a spark of curiosity quickly evolved into an expansive artistic journey. His collages are not simply visual experiments but meditations on narrative, identity, and the layered complexity of human thought.
The Birth of a Collage Language
From his earliest experiments, Ricci discovered that collage allowed him to translate philosophical and literary concepts into visual form. He began creating panel works that carried with them an almost novelistic rhythm, works that felt like fragments of unwritten stories or chapters torn from a dreamlike book.
Rather than treating collage as a mere arrangement, Ricci approached it as a language. Each panel became a sentence; each series, a story. He developed an evolving practice that blurred the boundaries between image and text, giving the viewer both a visual and intellectual experience. His series titles, such as Femma Dilemma, Hotel Kafka, and 3:43 A.M., signal this deep connection to narrative, drawing on themes of existential questioning, identity, and the surreal.
Collage as Narrative
Unlike many visual artists who seek resolution in composition, Ricci often leaves his works open-ended, more like fragments of fiction than closed statements. His projects demonstrate this approach vividly. Numbered Not Named extended his use of implied narrative, suggesting characters or stories without anchoring them to identity. Later, he expanded on this concept with Random Thoughts in the Waiting Room and Wait…what?, two projects that function as visual flash fiction. Each composition in these series integrates a single word or fragment of text, challenging viewers to construct their own narratives from the dissonance of imagery and language.
This play with words and images reflects Ricci’s fascination with the philosophical and the literary. By embedding fragments of text within his collages, he resists closure and instead invites interpretation, leaving space for the audience to become co-creators in the narrative process.
“Incongruities”: The Current Chapter
Ricci’s latest series, Incongruities, expands his ongoing narrative exploration on a larger visual and textual scale. The works play with juxtapositions, unexpected pairings of text and imagery that produce both tension and resonance. In these pieces, the viewer is asked not only to observe but to wrestle with contradictions, paradoxes, and questions that do not resolve neatly.
The series emphasizes Ricci’s belief that art can function as a philosophical dialogue. Just as literature can present characters and events without resolving their meaning, his collages engage the viewer in a similar process of open-ended reflection.
An Artist’s Framework: Kafka and Kierkegaard
At the heart of Ricci’s practice is his declared “literary/philosophical framework.” He cites Franz Kafka and Søren Kierkegaard as central influences. Kafka’s parables, enigmatic and unsettling, offer a model of narrative fragmentation and existential uncertainty. Kierkegaard’s aphorisms, by contrast, embody a philosophical rigor tempered by wit and paradox. Together, these influences shape Ricci’s approach to collage as a medium of improvisation and questioning.
As he explains in his artist statement, “elements determine content.” For Ricci, the process of collage is both constrained and liberated by the materials at hand. The available fragments dictate the possibilities of narrative, while his improvisational judgment determines the assembly. The act of making becomes a dialogue between chance and intention, freedom and limitation.
Exhibitions and Recognition
Ricci’s body of work has been widely recognized. He has exhibited in 27 galleries, with solo shows that highlight his distinctive approach to collage. Beyond physical exhibition spaces, his work has reached international audiences through online galleries, as well as publications in poetry and literary magazines, both in print and digital formats.
This broad reception underscores the literary quality of his collages. They are as at home in a gallery as they are in the pages of a magazine, where text and image traditionally converge. By straddling these worlds, Ricci demonstrates the hybrid nature of his art, visual enough to command presence on a wall, yet textual enough to resonate with the written word.
Improvisation as Philosophy
Improvisation sits at the core of Ricci’s creative identity. His collages are not meticulously preplanned but instead evolve through the spontaneous assembly of fragments. This process reflects his philosophical leanings: life, like collage, is not a closed system but an ongoing improvisation. Choice, judgment, and circumstance constantly reshape the outcome.
In this way, Ricci’s work can be seen as both autobiographical and universal. Each collage is a record of decisions made in a particular moment, yet the themes of identity, contradiction, and narrative uncertainty are ones shared by all.
A Voice Between Image and Text
What distinguishes Ricci is his ability to inhabit the space between image and text, the visual and the literary. His collages resist easy classification: they are not illustrations, nor are they purely abstract. Instead, they function as philosophical provocations, fragments of thought visualized through paper, color, and language.
For audiences, encountering a Ricci collage is akin to reading a passage of prose that refuses to explain itself. The imagery hints at stories but withholds resolution, leaving space for imagination. The result is a dynamic relationship between artist, artwork, and viewer, a dialogue rather than a lecture.
Conclusion: The Art of Open-Ended Stories
K.G. Ricci’s artistic journey is one of constant exploration. From his early experiments to his most recent series, he has remained committed to pushing collage beyond decorative function into the realm of philosophical inquiry. His work demonstrates how improvisation, narrative, and philosophy can converge in unexpected ways, producing art that is as thought-provoking as it is visually compelling.
In an era where both literature and art often struggle with questions of meaning and fragmentation, Ricci’s collages offer a fresh perspective: that meaning is not something given but something made in the act of engagement. By placing fragments together, images, words, and ideas, he reminds us that stories are never finished but always unfolding.
