Richard Feaster

statement:

Richard Feaster was born in Hagerstown, MD, and attended Birmingham Southern College (BFA), Tulane University (MFA) and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is included in many private and corporate collections. In 2016, he was nominated for a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. He lives and works in Nashville, TN.

This most recent body of paintings reflects the artist’s longstanding dialogue with the materiality of paint and the processes of mark-making via the abstract canvas. The origins of this journey stretch back to time spent living and working in New York, where he first experimented with graphite and other reflective materials that have become a hallmark of his work.

The central theme of this artwork is the perception of time via the physical experience of material handling and mark-making. Informed by sustained periods of experimental drawing, the resulting mixed media works on canvas embrace spontaneity and directness of approach, a hybrid of drawing technique and traditional painting methods. The physical behavior of the various materials reference time-based action, presented in the work as “drips”, “splatters” and “stains”, which the artist moves freely about the canvas via collage. This non-linear working method mimics our digital interactions, making visible the mystery of material processes that unfold slowly over time and leaving a visual index of clues for the viewer to pursue. Outside influences (music, visual culture, photography) enter the work in ways both subtle and personal, opening fresh discourse with the tenets of abstraction while skewing that language towards new sites of inquiry.

CV