Richard Whitten
Artist Bio Artist Work
Click HERE to see the video featuring Richard Whitten in RISD Screening: NetWorks 2015 Artist Video Portraits.
Click HERE to read about 8 Visions, an exhibition at Attleboro Arts Museum where Richard Whitten is featured.
Bio
Richard Whitten earned a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and an M.F.A. in Painting from the University of California at Davis where he studied with both Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Arneson.
He has had numerous exhibitions on both coasts. Notable are major solo exhibitions at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington, and The Newport Art Museum in Newport, Rhode Island.
He is presently a Professor of Painting at Rhode Island College.
Artist Statement
One recurring theme I have in my dreams is the discovery of beautiful hidden architectural spaces. I find unknown buildings or hidden passages. I make efforts to get to them and to explore them. Sometimes, I can indeed explore them in the same dream. Sometimes, I have to find them again in another dream – often years later.
It is from these dream images that I construct my paintings.
My paintings imply the existence of places and of objects of desire that, like the garden and flowers in Alice in Wonderland, can be glimpsed but neither reached nor acquired.
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I wish the viewer to have an almost physical sense of the transition between his or her own world and that of my paintings.
The experience is similar to the way one experiences a building or travels through a garden. It starts at the outside and moves to the center. The journey begins as the viewer realizes that the paintings are on non-rectangular wooden panels. Unlike the rectangle, which is understood to be a picture window into another space, the shaped panel is seen to be an object that exists in the world of the viewer – an object that has a physical and sculptural reality.
On these panels, the viewer finds a beautiful surface. Parts of the painting are like the marginalia of an illuminated manuscript. They act as both frame and guide into the painting. The viewer then travels through imaginary passageways, gateways, or corridors, to glimpse the private world enclosed therein.
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A conceptual transformation occurs when places and things are represented as an image. They become heightened in importance – perhaps transformed into an ideal, a memory, or a desire. One must ask: is the experience of “seeing and wanting” perhaps superior to “having”?
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Ultimately, my paintings are about intellectual play – an impetus for learning and exploration.
Education
University of California, Davis, CA, M.F.A., Painting 1987
Yale University, New Haven, CT, Non-Degree Studies in Painting 1980-82
Yale University, New Haven, CT, B.A. in Economics, Cum Laude 1980
Collegiate School, New York, NY 1976
Selected Solo and Two Person Exhibitions
“Studiolo”, University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, ME January 2016
“Passageways” Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA February 2016
“Experiments” Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, Vermont 2015
Dedee Shattuck Gallery, Westport, MA 2014
Sabbatical Exhibition, “Wunderkabinett” Bannister Gallery
Rhode Island College, Providence, RI 2014
“Cabinet of Curiosities” Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA 2014
“Sacre Rouge” Trustman Gallery, Simmons College, Boston, MA 2014
“Wunderkammer”, Anderson Gallery, Bridgewater University, Bridgewater, MA 2103
“Allegory, Metaphor, and Paradox” Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, RI 2011
“Details of Thought” Towne Gallery, Wheelock College, Boston, MA 2011
“Ingenium Mentis” Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA 2010
“Richard Whitten: Passageways”, Beard Gallery, Wheaton College, Norton, MA 2009
“Worlds of Wonder”, Lenore Gray Gallery, Providence, RI 2006
“Richard Whitten: Invisible Cities” 1997
“Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA
“Recent Paintings,” Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, RI 1994
“Reflection and Invention: The Paintings of Richard Whitten”
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI 1993
“Architectural Icons” Virginia Lynch Gallery, Tiverton, RI 1992
“Recent Paintings” Mincher-Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1990
“Secret Pleasures” Mincher-Wilcox Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1989
Selected Group Exhibitions
“The Thing Itself” (curated by John Yau) 2015
Center for Contemptorary Art, Bedminster, NJ
“8 Visions” Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro Arts Museum 2013
Newport Art Museum: Reconnection/Recollection II 2012
Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI
“8 Visions” Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA 2008
“Director’s Choice” Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA 1998
“Collegiate Alumni Gala” Collegiate School, New York, NY 1997
“Artists of New England Triennial,” Fuller Museum of Art, Brocton, MA 1996
Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY 1995
“Frame-Up” University of Rhode Island Main Gallery, Kingston, RI 1992
“Triennial Invitational Exhibition”
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA 1991
“Invitational” Michael Walls Gallery, New York, NY 1990
Awards and Fellowships
Keynote Speaker: Art of the 21st Century: 2016 Conference March 2016
Natsoulas Center for the Arts, Davis, CA
Networks 2015 2015
Vermont Studio Center Fellowship 2013
Ballinglen Foundation Fellowship, Ballycastle, Ireland (four residencies) 2007- present
The E. D. Foundation Grant, Kearny, NJ 1995-96
Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Artist Project Grant, Providence, RI 1993
Graham Foundation Grant, Chicago, IL 1990
University of California Regents’ Fellowship, Davis, CA 1986-87
University of California Regents’ Fellowship, Davis, CA 1985-86
Artists’ Space Exhibition Grant, New York, NY 1983
Bibliography (selected)
“Collage, Sculpture and Composition t satr at UMMA’s upcoming exhibitions” January 14, 2016
Shelby Hartin, Bangor Daily News
“Renaissance Man”, Kevin J. Kelly, Seven Days, Burlington, VT March 18, 2015
Richard Whitten “Experiments”, Suzanne Volmer, Artscope March/April 2015
“Objects of Wonder: Painting and Sculptures by Richard Whitten” Sept. 27, 2014
Hyperallergic Review, Natasha Seaman
“Richard Whitten”, Essay by Isabel Mattia, Lead Curator September 2014
Exhibition Catalogue: Dedee Shattuck Gallery
“Toy Story”, Lindsay Tucker, Boston Magazine Home Summer 2014
“Playing all the way down the Rabbit Hole”, Ashley Jeffards, The Anchor April 7. 2014
“Old Master Meets Steampunk”, Bill Van Siclen, Providence Journal April 3, 2014
“Wunderkabinett: A Cabinet of Curiosities April 2013
Catalog article by John Yau, Professor of Art Criticism, Rutgers University
“Sacre Rouge: Richard Whitten”, Brigitt Lynch, Director, Trustman Gallery February 2014
Exhibition Catalogue: Trustman Gallery, Simmons College
“Wunderkammer: Paintings by Richard Whitten, John Winters July-August 2013
Art New England
“Richard Whitten: Wunderkammer”; Bridgewater University Exhibition
Catalogue Essay by Judith Tolnick Editor Art New England 2013
“Richard Whitten: Passageways”; Wheaton College Exhibition Catalogue 2009
Essay by Ann Murray, Prof. of Art History and Director, Beard Gallery
Teaching
Rhode Island College, Providence, RI; Professor 2006-present
Rhode Island College, Providence, RI; Instructor 1993-2006
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI 1998-present
Instructor: Summer Programs
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, MA; Lecturer 1996-2005
Assumption College, Worcester, MA; Visiting Lecturer 2003
University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 1995-97
Visiting Assistant Professor and Lecturer
Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI 1992-2006
Visiting Critic, School of Architecture
Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI; Visiting Instructor 1991-93
Penn State University, University Park, PA; Assistant Professor 1989-91
Yuba College, Marysville, CA; Instructor 1988-89