Richard’s work showcases all of the techniques of classic surrealist painters. He infuses experiences from his travels along with his knowledge and technical skills to create transformative work.
After meeting Richard on our ART Bus Tour last year, we thought his work was the perfect fit for our Surreal // So Real issue.
Richard attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City and received his MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and Rome, Italy. Though now he is located in Austin, TX, Richard has exhibited work in galleries and museums in New York and Germany.
What was the journey that led you to the surreal genre?
During my years as an art student, drawing and painting the human form was most exciting for me. I spent a year studying painting and printmaking in Rome and gravitated to artists who approached the figure in both traditional and non-traditional methods, from Caravaggio to Richard Lindner.
As an art student, I discovered the Surrealists and was drawn to the works of Miro, Paul Klee, and Frederich Hundertwasser. I adopted their techniques, including automatic drawing, decalcomania and frottage to produce a substantial vocabulary of forms used in my paintings and drawings.
Can you share more about the Conversation series (pictured)?
The imagery for these works evolved from an initial series I called Stations of the Mask. The imagery was originally inspired by my travels to Mexico and New Mexico, where I discovered the masks of indigenous peoples.
Diving deeper, I researched mask-making in several cultures, finding rich symbolism and often anthropomorphic and totemic images. The Conversation series grew out of this exploration and a fascination with the tongue as a means of communication. It’s a metaphor for joking, lying, sexual innuendo and double entendre.
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