Steve La Riccia
Medium: Mixed media
Mail: PO Box 21015, Eugene, OR 97402 Phone: 541.935.4308 Email: steamworks@centurylink.net Website: steamworksresearchlabs.com |
Steve La Riccia, a Eugene-based, self-unemployed artist, is well-known for his painterly SX-70 Polaroid manipulated photographic work from the past 30 years. A figure in the Eugene art scene, Steve has produced the popular Salon des Refusés exhibition since 1991, and serves as gallery coordinator for the New Zone Arts Collective.
In 2008 Polaroid announced the discontinuation of the SX-70 film, making the SX-70 photographic manipulation process a "lost art.” Wanting to move on and create something different (and holding a background in vacuum-tube-based television electronics, building ultralight flying machines, and collecting old and odd mechanical devices, combined with a knowledge of history and science), La Riccia produced his first interactive assemblage. Exhibited in 2010, "Farnsworth's Dilemma' was a hit- people were excited by La Riccia's new direction into the Steampunk genre. "I had never heard of the term before", but La Riccia became more familiar with the art form as he researched it and continued on with his art.
In 2011, La Riccia pulled out all the stops and produced his second interactive assemblage, “Wozniak’s Conundrum”, a circa 1990's Macintosh computer grafted onto a 19th century Remington typewriter, creating a fully-functional, working computer. “Wozniak’s Conundrum” soon went viral and received world-wide attention throughout the blogosphere, putting La Riccia on the map in the steampunk and art worlds. His next contraption, “Tesla’s Trepidation,” is like his first piece, but on steroids- a steampunk home entertainment center that plays videos, dispenses brandy, and much more. |