“If there’s no message, there’s no work.”
Richard Vergez is a Cuban-American visual and sound artist who mixes old materials with new technology to create minimal surrealist collages. The artist works with human and technological elements and combines paper with digital media. The versatile and eclectic artist has an impressive roundabout work. With a background in graphic design, Vergez easily moves between handmade and sound collages; he builds a bridge between the modern digital aesthetic and the physically tangible creations of Dada and Surrealist artists.
In 2010, I was inspired by the artist Mark Weaver to make one piece of art a day for the entire year as he had done the year prior. I admired the clean, digital aesthetic of his work but was also very much inspired by the physically tangible quality of early Dada and Surrealist collage.
Although the aesthetic quality is important, Vergez is more interested in conveying a powerful message. Much of his work relates to the modern dystopian identity. Vergez’s characters have multiple faces or lack a body, embrace technology as a part of their bodies, or dissolve in industrial landscapes — a struggle brought to life in a minimalist and creative way.
I’d say half of my work is improvised, where I let the source material guide the piece resulting in unexpected compositions and happy accidents. The other half is a result of a prompt or story I have in mind. What am I trying to say? For me, that’s the most important. If there’s no message, there’s no work.
He packs his messages as riddles to make you develop abstract thinking and keep his surrealist collages in the back of your head for a longer time. In Vergez’s portfolio, you can find paper-cut imaginary buildings, album covers for musicians, sculptures, and his music, which will be released in November. And while he manages so many different challenges and projects, Richard Vergez remains true to his artistic vision of conveying a lot with the least amount of elements.
Richard Vergez
Article written by Monica Radulescu
