Ricky Mujica Undraped (AUDIO)

RICKY MUJICA http://www.rickymujica.com     Born and raised in New York City, Ricky Mujica studied art at the High School of Art and Design, Parsons in Paris, and at Parsons School of Design /New School for Social Research where he won a full Presidential Scholarship. The artwork of Ricky Mujica was initially influenced by the old masters and this connection has helped him achieve a high level of success as an illustrator. Before returning to his roots as a fine artist, Ricky Mujica created art for all the top publishing companies including Harper Collins, Harlequin, Bantam, and Scholastic. He has created art for major magazines including the New York Times Magazine and Ebony. His work has been seen in commercials for such products as Cherry 7-Up, on murals for Sony and Leows theaters, and on clothes for fashion designer Rachel Roy. His artwork has been represented at the Museum of American Illustration on several occasions. Since returning to his first love, Fine Art, Ricky has received many awards. This includes a first place finish at the April round of The Representational Art Conference 2015 competition (TRAC2015). A signature Status from the Portrait Society of America where he has been a finalist and certificate of merit recipient in their international competitions on several occasions. He has been a finalist in the OPA National, Regional and members competitions, the Salmagundi Club members and non-members competitions, the Allied Artists Competitions, the National Oil and Acrylic Painters National competitions, the Richeson Competitions, the Artist Magazine figurative art competitions, and the ARC International Salon Competitions, he won the Art Expo Solo Award, and has received an Honorable Mention in the Figurativas competition in Barcelona. Most recently, Ricky won the Florence and Ernest Thompson Memorial Award at the 103 Allied Artists Exhibition, and First Place at the Lore Degenstein Gallery of Susquehanna University Ninth Annual Figurative Drawing and Painting Competition. He currently teaches at the acclaimed Art Students League of New York and has been on the teaching faculty at the Portrait Society of America. He has given demos and workshops on representational painting all over the world. Ricky considers himself a humanist representational painter. The technique is influenced by Baroque masters like Rembrandt and Velasquez. His color model is influenced by Monet, Hawthorne and the 19th century ideas about retinal painting. The contextual ideas are influenced by 20th century modernist ideas, most specifically the Abstract Expressionists like Motherwell, Deibenkorn, and Kline. The subject matter is influenced by humanist painters like Kathe Kollwitz and Mary Cassat. Ricky has lived in Africa, Norway, Germany, Mexico, France, Spain, Japan, England, Italy, and Australia.