Chloe Rizzo is a nationally exhibited sculptor and educator. She received a BFA in Sculpture from Rowan University (Glassboro, N.J.) in 1999. In 2001, she completed an MFA in Ceramic Sculpture from the School for American Crafts, Rochester Institute of Technology, N.Y., under the direction of Richard Hirsch and Julia Galloway. Upon completion of her Masters degree, she accepted a position at Rowan teaching drawing and ceramics. In 2002, she was accepted into an independent study program at the University of Colorado (Boulder, Colorado).
Rizzo then moved to Seattle, exhibiting throughout the city while teaching two- and three-dimensional art to students of all ages at a wide variety of public and private venues. Much of her work with children was funded through the nationally recognized Arts Corps program that provides art exploration for students who would not otherwise have opportunities to express themselves through the arts. In 2007, her family moved abroad, and she developed a new body of work in a women’s ceramic art studio in the Czech Republic. Upon returning to the United States in 2008, she taught ceramics through the Perkins Center Summer Youth Program, bringing urban and suburban children from New Jersey together. In 2009, Rizzo moved to the Texas Panhandle and built a studio in the Amarillo area. She is a guest lecturer and part time fine arts teacher at West Texas A&M University and Amarillo College while volunteering as an art educator to those who do not have access to the arts.
Rizzo has noted that she uses herself as a model in her work. In an artist’s statement, she once wrote:
“My current work has evolved into a combination of sculpted and drawn fragments of the body. I am more actively exploring the distance between youth, spirit, and mortality in a tangible way. Much of this work has been informed by the experience of caring for my mother in hospice, and watching the dramatic physical and psychological changes of those faced with death, but still aware of the richness of a life cut short. The work was an attempt to capture my own inner emotions and relate how I viewed the relationships between beauty and sadness, desire and fear, strength and vulnerability, confusion and acceptance, hope and doubt.” [1]
For more information on Chloe Rizzo and her work, visit http://chloerizzoartwork.blogspot.com/ .
Profile adapted from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1z9e60Q8yKEYldTUU9hcU9JU1k/view?pli=1. (Accessed 3/17/2015)
[1] Chloe Rizzo, “Artist Statement,” https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1z9e60Q8yKETDNlcGlQZDI4NTg/view?pli=1. (Accessed 3/17/2015)