On December 9th, 2009, REPUBLIC presents a film and lecture by Roger Ricco and the family of artist Justin Canha at the Cooke Center Academy High School in New York City. In the early 1980s, Roger Ricco established one of the first galleries in New York devoted entirely to American Folk, Self-Taught and Outsider Art and is presently co-owner of Ricco/Maresca Gallery, located in New York City’s Chelsea gallery district.
In addition to his own extremely successful artistic career, Roger frequently speaks across the country on creativity and art, has taught at New York’s School of Visual Arts, and in recent years he has become known as an authority on artists with Autism. Artist Justin Canha and his parents, Briant and Maria Teresa, will accompany Roger at this presentation. Justin Canha is a 20-year-old artist with autism, who is represented by Ricco/Maresca Gallery. His work has been featured in Oprah Magazine and aspects of his autistic and artistic life have been described in two recent documentaries, Autism: A Different Way of Communicating and Sidecars. In January 2008, Justin successfully made his world debut at the Outsider Art Fair in NYC and in April 2008, his work was shown at Art Chicago, the world-renowned International Contemporary and Modern Art Fair. Due to Justin having such a variety of different artistic interests and talents, his work ranges from pastels and paint to digital animation.
In addition to Justin’s story, this presentation will focus on several other celebrated artists who, faced a variety of different personal and developmental challenges, have utilized their unique talents to discover unconventional means of communication. These are the stories of individual artists with rare gifts and inspiring abilities who clearly illustrate the prevailing human creative drive and the urge to communicate with the world, even when a traditional means of communication has been impaired or is an unavailable option.
The presentation begins at 12:30 at the Cooke Center Academy located at 60 MacDougal Street in SoHo, NYC. All parents and teachers are encouraged to participate and refreshments will be served after the presentation. Roger, Justin and his family will also be available for questions and discussions after the presentation.
For more information please contact republicbrooklyn@gmail.com or emason@cookecenter.org. Or call 212. 280. 4473 x 11.
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