The Luck of the Draw

It was literally pure chance that placed Wayne’s and Riha’s two solo shows on the same dates in May of 1995. The first collaborative pieces were created n the spring of that year, for the exhibition at Santa Fe Contemporary Art entitled “A Convergence.” The initial experiment was a mized media work on paper that the two abstract painters tackled independently, passing it back and forth from studio to studio over a period of several weeks. Experimental monotypes followed, as the two discovered a common language of mark-making, color, and rhythm.

A day came to try painting on canvas together, at the same time — two artists who had never before felt inclined to share the solitary process of art making, even with observers. It worked beautifully. There was very little need for conversation, they simply painted together. Convergence Studios was formed in 1997. Their collaborations are now in international collections.

Convergence Studios produced “Art in Architecture,” a series of exhibitions in Placitas in 1997, and curated group exhibitions at Assets Grill, in Albuquerque in 1998. Wayne and Riha were the curators of the Inpost Artspace, at the Outpost Performance Space, in Albuquerque, from January of 1999 to 2001. They are founding members of the Placitas Studio Tour, which takes place every Mother’s Day weekend.

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WAYNE  MIKOSZ
Wayne began painting in interior design school in the abstract style and was influenced by Pollock, Kline, Motherwell and a number of other early AbEx painters. He moved on into impressionist landscape works and then circled back to abstraction when he moved to New Mexico in 1991. Collaborating with Riha, beginning in 1995 and to this day, he continues to find new ways of expression through the relationships' exhibitions and commissions and in his individual works. He began developing, in 2007, a line of custom mirrors made from recycled, repurposed and found objects and materials from his design and residential construction projects and is expanding this idea into more unique products for the home.

RIHA ROTHBERG
Often inspired by dreams, Riha’s paintings and prints evoke a sense of timelessness.  Emotions and memories are stirred, fantasy rekindled.  The viewer’s experience deepens with the length of time spent gazing at the work.  Her abstract paintings, monotypes, and mixed media constructions are collected internationally.  The recent Raven series, more figurative, was inspired by her good fortune to know Poe, a local corvid.  She has lived in Placitas since 1985.