Hunt Rettig’s elegant compositions of curves and loops give the illusion of being flat, illuminated digital images that allude to the artist’s long-standing interest in Op and Kinetic Art. In reality, his works are built up of molded and shaped polyester on an acrylic substrate, which is coated, through a proprietary method developed by the artist, with paint, film, synthetic rubber, and silicone. His process changes with the mix of materials that he uses and their different combinations create new expressions of the same compositional biomorphic forms. The evolution in his work can surprise even the artist, who has said, “Within my terrain I see cross sections of cross sections, unnatural confluences, unnavigable borders, unrestricted constriction and breath-like expansion. Especially with plantlike forms I see what I can best describe as the invisibly visible, out of reach, out of context, infinitely reproducing, raised round. And then on occasion I imagine how bits and pieces of these biomorphic forms mesh together and produce landscapes unnatural yet natural at the same time. The process is a slow unfurling, like a fern.”
Rettig has a BS from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. However, his aesthetic and his process-based artistic practice are self-taught. A visit as a child to the Jesús Soto Museum in Ciudad Bolivar in Venezuela was hugely influential because it taught him that works of art can function and engage the viewer on many different levels.
