PAINTING
ROBERT RICOV
(CROATIA/AUSTRALIA)
 
DETAILS
Oil on round wood panel
30 cm 
2021
 
DESCRIPTION
The show must go on! And on! And under the big top it goes on! Night after night clowns make an ever new audience laugh with a roar that hides what creatures scurry beneath. And they laugh while feeding their grinning faces with all manner of circus treats. On this particular night a box falls from the seats, and then green donuts from the box. A circus rat eagerly apprehends them, dragging them backstage and then stacking them with pride. He leans against them­—a well deserved rest from yet another night’s scavenging. And he begins his feast. This rat has become a familiar sight now. Always bobbing up and down; the circus folk have named him Bobby.
 
BIO
Robert Ricov b. 1973 Sydney, Australia BA 1994, College of Visual Arts, Sydney Robert Ricov has been living, working, and exhibiting in Croatia since he moved there in 2022. His oil paintings, in a style he refers to as “surreal maximalist realism,” use symbolism to represent themes such as the loss of innocence, betrayal, and hope. In October of 2023, Robert traveled to the island of Menorca, Spain, where he was mentored by Guillermo Lorca and Martin Wittfooth. It wasn’t until a few months after that he realized how profoundly this experience affected the direction of his work. After Robert became finalist in the Toolip Art Contest in Budapest in 2024, he is represented exclusively by the Toolip Art Gallery.