Born in Stockton, California and currently based in Seattle, Washington, Wylee Risso is a self-taught oil painter making intimate portraits of both the living and the inanimate. Primarily influenced by daily life, Risso solidifies passing moments in masses of color and abstract shapes, creating arresting compositions. Each work goes through a laborious process of scraping, reconstructing and repainting until finished, with each step intentionally left visible. “For me,” Risso says, “the beauty in a painting doesn’t hang solely on the final presentation, but rather how it was built.”

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