2016 Catalogue Archive

Ricci Albenda’s meticulously-rendered text paintings are studies in language, abstraction, and popular culture. Here, the title of “I Wanna Be Loved by You” (famously sung by Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot) is painted in the artist’s own font – Albenda Bold (a variation on Times Roman). Albenda’s font highlights the flowing geometry of the letters (seen in the way “ann” in “wanna” all connect), and emphasizes the fact that, above all, he is creating an abstract composition. A white halo around the letters further accentuates the optical effects of the piece. Albenda also paints the text in sentence case, capitalizing only the first word, and places a period at the end, shifting the text from a title to a wistful request. Albenda’s text-based and sculptural work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at museums worldwide.