Fire Face Grizzly

About Fire Face Grizzly

Drawing from his own rich history and that of indigenous peoples worldwide, Metis artist Rick Rivet has created colourful, dynamic contemporary paintings for decades.

This portrait of a grizzly bear’s head is rendered in the artist’s favoured bright palette—fiery red, midnight blue, magenta, deep pink, orange and white. In many indigenous cultures, the powerful image of a bear is respected as a symbol of wisdom—as a guardian, teacher and leader. Rivet’s grizzly is looking directly at the viewer—a perspective that only adds to its larger-than-life presence. One of a series.

“My art represents aspects of my own culture and history personally, and in the wider archetypal sense, includes all common human experience. It is both ‘Canadian’ and universal.” Rick Rivet

Rivet was born in Aklavik in the Northwest Territories. He grew up on the land and his family lived by trapping, hunting and fishing. Rivet completed his MFA at the U. of Saskatchewan in 1989 and began painting full time. Rivet has been the recipient of over twenty awards, scholarships and bursaries, including a Fellowship from the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, and the Andy Warhol Foundation Fellowship Residency Program for the Heard Museum in Phoenix. His work is in private, corporate, and public collections in Canada and the US.