CLICK ON IMAGE FOR ENLARGEMENT

Riki Kuropatwa
b. Winnipeg, Manitoba 1970

Riki Kuropatwa received a Master of Fine Arts from York University in Toronto, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Manitoba, and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Toronto. She has had several solo and group exhibits; her paintings, drawings, and prints are in private collections in Canada and the United States.

Riki's current body of acrylic, oil, and mixed media paintings draws from the subject matter she has been exploring for the last several years - portraits of girls.

"My work attempts to challenge the media driven stereotypes of the female as passive sexual objects."

In contrast to the way girls are often represented in contemporary media, Riki's 'girls' are strong, and self- possessed. They are a combination superhero, model, and figure of whimsy, a power with whom, one would not want to trifle.

Riki uses variations of a female rabbit and the character Pippi Longstocking alternately, as vehicles to explore femininity. Originally inspired by a combination of Bugs Bunny and the characters from the novel Watership Down, Riki began using the rabbit figure several years ago, as it allowed her to present a female without getting caught up in a specific individual.

"It is the perfect trickster figure, who manages to upset the balance in any social structure. In my earlier work I used the rabbit as the instigator/underminer within our social institutions. In this work, I use the rabbit to create a strong, fierce, independent group of females who directly relates to and resists the current representation of the female in the media."

She plays with the fictional character of Pippi Longstocking by dressing her in warrior/super-hero outfits, holding either a sword or a power tool. "For me, Pippi has long been the embodiment of a free, independent female, one who has not and would never be influenced by the powers that be to become more appropriate in her manner or her physical self."