Zener Schon Gallery

Rick Begneaud is most known for his collage-style modern artworks, in which he layers found objects, photo transfers, paint, and fabric onto canvas. His use of spacial composition and soothing color palettes are intentionally selected to create a positive and negative spacial relationship. Begneaud was immersed in an artistic environment from childhood, influenced by his uncle/American painter, Robert Rauschenberg.

As his only nephew, Rick had a close relationship with his mother’s brother “Bob”.  Begneaud spent his summers during his teens in Rauschenberg’s studio located in Captiva Island, Florida, and immersed himself with the non-traditional materials/objects and applying those techniques onto canvas. These works reference that influence, within his overarching abstract landscape of composition, color, texture, and mood.

Begneaud has a passion for traveling in remote places, photographing, and collecting unique artifacts and is regularly nourished by his travels around Africa, Asia, South America, Europe and the United States.

Originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, he has lived for nearly 30 years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has evolved into a prominent member of this bustling artistic community. The union of his Cajun upbringing and refined, watchful eye towards the world at large has empowered Begnaud with a broad understanding of fine art and mankind. The visual result of these complimentary qualities is a keen, soulful hand – readily apparent in the dramatic material he produces.

“My work is about an organic drive towards a resonant composition – space, color, texture – that’s what moves me. To some extent, I do agonize over the placement and relationships of parts of each piece, but my goal is always for simplicity… for finding a type of spirit in the work.  The negative space allows my artwork to “breathe”.  The active, positive spaces in the work (photo transfers, fabric, paint) converse with the negative. That’s essentially where I find my titles…those conversations within…that agreeable or disagreeable tension. That’s the heart of the work.”