tom richard:
throwing tomatoes
February 4-27, 2024
FIRST WEDNESDAY OPENING: Feb 5, FROM 6 - 9PM
ARTICULATE ARTIST TALK: SUNDAY, Feb 9, AT 4PM.
NORMAL GALLERY HOURS: TUE - SUN, 12PM - 6PM
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Tom Richard makes art that focuses on the space between the serious and the absurd. The idea of frivolity amongst the sacred interests Richard. Tom Richard’s two-dimensional mixed media studio practices address issues of history, making history, reflection, and present by combining planned acts of painting specific historical references with spontaneous processes that allow the viewer to move, conceptually, from whimsy to dread.
The history of throwing tomatoes (or other forms of produce) to express feelings of disdain, disgust, loathing, or dislike is one of our oldest forms of expression.
Last year, after completing my largest series to date (287 paintings that depicted bubble gum painted over images from Janson’s History of Art), I was uncertain as to what to do next. Upon cleaning my studio, I uncovered many unfinished pieces that were begun pre-pandemic. This incorporated imagery of toys with “dangerous” stuff (germs, people screaming, splatters, caution signs, targets, ants, peeps…). I decided to reassess these unfinished pieces. It was harder than I thought it would be.
I found difficulty in trying to resolve ideas based upon past principles of whimsy and dread or to finish the work while trying to entertain mindsets of experience from before the pandemic. I worked for a month with little to no success. So, I cleaned out my waning garden. I picked the last remaining tomatoes (1/2 dozen or so) as they were starting to turn. Then inspiration struck as a way to realize or fuse past ideas with the present - I would add thrown splattered tomatoes into these pieces. I primed some panels, threw tomatoes at them, photographed the splattered tomatoes, and made a few studies.
Well, the studies blossomed into a series. - Richard
His work has been included in over 100 national juried and invitational exhibitions including Heroes at Central Michigan University, After School Special at the University Art Museum in Albany, NY, Metamorphosis at the Regional Art Museum in Fort Smith, AR, and Artfields in Lake City, SC. He has had over 50 solo exhibitions at venues including the Arkansas Arts Center, the Historic Arkansas Museum, Baton Rouge Galley, and numerous university museums, galleries, and art centers throughout the United States. Tom Richard is a Professor of Art at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
This exhibition is presented alongside the latest works from Malaika Favorite, and Michael G. Williams. All works from these artists are on view, free of charge, during regular gallery hours (12 - 6 p.m., Tue - Sun) from February 4 - 27, 2024.