David Ruggeri’s work pops with bold primary colors and intentional paint drips that give it that raw graffiti look. The subjects, mostly nostalgic images from the 90s–Jordans, the Kool-Aid man, the original Nintendo remote, a mix tape, among others–are set against a spray paint background and sometimes ironically next to the words, “NO GRAFFITI.”
“That’s kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing. Graffiti has been criminalized. People can get fined, so this is a paradox between them painting graffiti and spray painting on a wall, telling people not to spray paint on the wall,” says Ruggeri.
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Six of Ruggeri’s paintings will be on display at the Angad Arts Hotel alongside works by Brandon Chavis in Re-Play, an exhibit that focuses on mass media that shaped their childhoods.
Ruggeri began painting graffiti after being influenced by Keith Haring and Kaws. It was the colors that captivated Ruggeri, but also the artists’ motivations. “This whole group of people was putting all this phenomenal work out there, and nobody knew who they were,” he says. “It seemed like their motivation wasn’t to become the most famous artists in the world; they just wanted to create artwork. They didn’t make money; it actually cost them money. They had to buy or steal the paint, and if they got caught, they had to pay fines.”
Like the graffiti artists before him, Ruggeri began painting for the sake of painting. Nearly six years ago, he decided to make painting his main line of work, but he still wrestles with the idea of getting paid for his work versus what graffiti is and what it’s about. “It’s kind of hard to parse out,” he says. “You do make money doing this, but that wasn’t really the intention to do it. It’s difficult to kind of come to terms with that, from what graffiti started as. Everything’s in evolution.”
Ruggeri carries a small notebook with him, and when he gets an idea for a painting, he jots it down. Sometimes those ideas become paintings, other times he questions what he was thinking when he wrote down the idea. He likes iconic images that remind him of his past, such as the Big Boy restaurant he recently drove past.
“When I paint, I have a variety of messages I try to get across,” says Ruggeri. “Some are more serious, like the ‘Almost Extinct’ series [in which Ruggeri painted animals that are near extinction in somber colors.] And then [my subjects] go completely whimsical. It’s not life-changing at all–Lego character, a mixtape. I want some type of emotional reaction, and that could simply be: Man, I remember making a mixtape, or playing Pac-Man at a pizza parlor.”
Ruggeri has a PhD in Public Policy Analysis and Administration, among a list of other degrees, and credits his academic background for giving him “the ability to look at things on different levels and from different perspectives.”
“Art speaks to so much, but it also gives me the ability to say art can just be art,” says Ruggeri. “There doesn’t have to be a profound message to make.”
Re-Play, featuring David Ruggeri and Brandon Chavis, opens on March 4 and runs to May 29 at Angad Arts Hotel.
