Luce Gallery is proud to present the first exhibition in Italy, and in the gallery, by Leif Ritchey.The solo exhibition will contain a series of new paintings, mostly done on  large scale. With their abstract structure, Leif Ritchey’s paintings convey a lack of linearity in his language, meaning that we often come across representations that actually contain clear references to figuration. Through appropriation of a range of techniques and the use of unconventional materials, the artist inserts elements of texture and material thickness that make the paintings dense of details that can be perceived only by approaching the work, in an ongoing process of deduction and discovery of the structure of the painting itself. The interaction between the ephemeral and the material seems to be the framework on which all the artist’s work rests. Its play reveals the stroke of the drawing or watercolor in painting that is fluid but dense in subtle colors that never terminate their presence clearly, but mingle in continuous shadings.Leif Ritchey seems to begin his paintings almost aimlessly. He gives them titles only after ending the works, sets no barriers for himself, and often making his work in a natural way, without boundaries, paced and accompanied by music or simply by the rhythm of life in a continuous voyage towards its destiny: “Life happens around you and I think you miss it by trying to overpower it and make to many decisions. Sometimes is good just to let it happen. A little give and a little take, that sort of balance. For me, this staff we call art is what always gives me the balance. The ability to enjoy it”.