Brooklyn, NY
Biography:
I grew up in Western New York near Rochester. My father was a Sociology professor and my mother was a teacher. Both did sculpture, woodworking and painting as hobbies. I was surrounded by art supplies and would draw and paint all the time. I graduated from Harvard in 1988 and shortly after I enrolled at the Massachusetts College of Art. I left there after the first semester because I was broke and it seemed a more practical to develop my conceptual art and painting on my own. In the Spring of 1997 I put a for sale sign on the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and then moved to New York. Soon after arriving in New York I began putting museum labels on street objects (calling it Designated Art) and showing paintings on the streets. By 1998 I was showing in galleries but my most important show at the time was a solo exhibit in K-Mart at Astor Place. Most of the painting I am doing now is self portraiture. I create scenes for painting which are narratives or ideas for larger stories, sort of like a still from a movie. I use myself in most of the pictures largely for practical reasons; I'm always available and I don't charge a fee. In addition to the subject matter I am interested in experimenting with the process and techniques of painting- something I try to do with each new canvas.
Website: www.paulrichard.net
