I find Rick "Dienzo" Blanco's characters are delightfully charming. Creepy & Cute is what defines Dienzo's style in fine art, this American artist being inspired in creating his acrylic characters by his work for Disney, Mattel and Cartoon Network. His dark and odd young things are meant to intrigue and cause anxiety, also suggesting that we all have a darker side coming to the surface when we are expecting the least.
In his work as an artist, Rick Blanco is also inspired by Hollywood horror movies, Halloween traditions, works of photographers George Hurrell and Don English and also by photographs of Marlene Dietrich, Lupita Tovar or Dolores del Rio. His first solo exhibition at Hyaena, the Burbank gallery, the place of a more subversive art, Rick looked towards other favorite subject, glamorous lady vampires, influenced by deadly romantic past, seductive but placed not so far away from the pop surrealist present.
Dienzo, Domenick training and Domenique scheming
His ladies are fashionable characters, several pieces from the collection being collaborations with fashion designer La Carmina. Rick Blanco received his bachelor's degree in graphic design and an executive MBA from Loyola Marymount University. His pseudonym Dienzo is actually a combination from his sons' names: Diego & Lorenzo. Nowadays he lives with his wife and kids near Pasadena, California where he continues to create his whimsical characters, considered childish in the past, like anything cute, but today totally suitable for humorous grown-ups.
