Rider University will host an exhibition entitled “Retrospective” from Thursday, January 24 to Sunday, February 24 in the Bart Luedeke Center Art Gallery on the Lawrenceville campus. 

On January 24 from 5 to 7 p.m., an opening reception will take place at the Gallery, located on the top floor of the Bart Luedeke Center.  Rigby will present a gallery talk about his work on Thursday, January 31 at 7 p.m.  Both the reception and talk are free and open to the public. 

A Professor of Art at The College of New Jersey, Rigby is considered one of New Jersey’s important painters and educators. His work has been included in more than 180 exhibitions nationwide and he has been the recipient of numerous research grants. His work is included in the following public collections: the New Jersey State Museum, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Hunterdon Museum of Art, Johnson and Johnson Corporate Center, City Corp Bank and City Savings Bank. 

Rigby is known for painting pictures of classic cars, focusing on the abstract reflective patterns, shapes and forms found on the high-gloss finishes. He has also extended his realistic interest in creating paintings that focus on sidewalks, wall and structural fault patterned surfaces.  These paintings appear as abstractions, but upon further scrutiny the viewer becomes aware of Rigby’s keen observation of reality: the forms, shapes, patterns and textures. These paintings force the viewer to question the relationship between reality, nature and abstraction.  The exhibition will be a retrospective spanning forty years of artistic development in the areas of painting, drawing and printmaking.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.  For more information, call (609) 895-5588.

Submitted on January 8, 2008