From GI to MFA: Clayton Rippey’s Explorations in Abstraction

Like many GIs of his generation, Clayton Rippey’s education was first interrupted by the draft and then facilitated by the GI Bill. Following the war, he graduated with a BA followed by an MFA from Stanford, and then began a long career teaching at Bakersfield College in southern California. A prolific artist who worked across media, Rippey’s body of work is a diverse exploration of color, form, and subject matter. This exhibition brings together artifacts from his life and military service, alongside a selection of his paintings and mixed-material mosaics, which are all executed in Rippey’s unique abstract style, both figurative and geometric.