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RICO GATSON
GHOSTS19 NOVEMBER - 19 DECEMBER 2020
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Three exhibitions to see in New York this weekend
Rico Gatson: GhostsUntil 19 December at Miles McEnery Gallery, 520 West 21st Street, Manhattan
Rico Gatson works across painting, sculpture, video and collage, often using abstraction as a means to explore the Black experience in America. In his show at Miles McEnery, he demonstrates how he has been able to use the same visual lexicon developed in works past to investigate Blackness in its relationship to the mystical, opening doors to see how one experience may bleed into the next.
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Rico GatsonUntitled (Magic Mountain), 2020Acrylic paint on wood36 x 80 inches
91.4 x 203.2 cm -
Rico GatsonUntitled (Transparent Bodies), 2020Acrylic paint on wood36 x 80 inches
91.4 x 203.2 cm -
Rico GatsonUntitled (Magic Diamonds), 2020Acrylic paint on wood36 x 80 inches
91.4 x 203.2 cm -
Rico GatsonUntitled (Ghosts After Albert Ayler), 2020Acrylic paint and glitter on wood36 x 80 inches
91.4 x 203.2 cm
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"The triangle for me is a symbol that represents any number of things historically, but in a nutshell, it's a symbol of good and evil. The upright position traditionally represents good, and the subverted one represents evil. I like the idea of this occurring in both directions in the works. Deconstructing symbols over the course of my career, specific forms have come to have specific meaning, but they also kind of dissolve in the repetitive rendering. I am trying to subvert or play with symbols of power."
- Rico Gatson
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RICO GATSON, Untitled (Flag III), 2020, Acrylic paint on wood, 36 x 48 inches, 91.4 x 121.9 cm
"I think about magic from the standpoint of an awe-inspiring thing that occurs upon something in nature. Magic is the hidden, or invisible, that's sort of around us, the spirit, the soul. Energy."
- Rico Gatson
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Rico GatsonAlbert, 2020Color pencil and photograph collage on paper
22 1/8 x 30 3/8 inches
56.2 x 77.2 cm -
Rico GatsonNtozake, 2020Color pencil and photograph collage on paper
22 1/8 x 30 3/8 inches
56.2 x 77.2 cm -
Rico GatsonEric, 2018Color pencil and photograph collage on paper
22 1/8 x 30 3/8 inches
56.2 x 77.2 cm -
Rico GatsonZora #2, 2020Color pencil and photograph collage on paper
22 1/8 x 30 3/8 inches
56.2 x 77.2 cm
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RICO GATSON (b. 1966 in Augusta, GA) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Bethel College in 1989 and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale School of Art in 1991. He also completed his artist residency in 1998 at Franconia Sculpture Park, Taylor Falls, MN and in 2013 was the Ginsberg Artist in Residence at the Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College, Beloit, WI.
Recent solo exhibitions include Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY (forthcoming); “My Eyes Have Seen,” Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, NY; “Rico Gatson: 2007-2017,” The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; “Power Lines,” Samsøñ Projects, Boston, MA; “Rico Gatson: When She Speaks,” Studio 10, Brooklyn, NY; “The Promise of Light,” Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY; “2013 Ginsberg Artist in Residence, Rico Gatson,” Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College, Beloit, WI; “RICO GATSON: Three Trips Around the Block,” Exit Art, New York, N Y and “History Lessons,” Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, V T
His work is included in the permanent collections of The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN; Bethel College, St. Paul, MN; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN; Denver Art Museum, Denver CO; Kempner Museum, Kansas City, MO; Malcolm X Institute, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN; Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA; Peter Norton Family Foundation, Santa Monica, CA and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
He is the recipient of many awards including the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award for Visual Artists; Prized Pieces Video Award from the National Black Programming Consortium; Oil Bar Ltd. Award for Excellence in Sculpture from Yale School of Art and the Pew Charitable Trust Graduate Fellowship.
Rico Gatson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
