Rico Gatson American, b. 1966

Overview
Untitled (Four Winds), 2022
Untitled (Four Winds), 2022

“I’m always interested in seducing the viewer and then hitting them on the way out, allowing a delayed response to powerfully charged content.”

 

- Rico Gatson

Over the course of almost two decades, Rico Gatson has become celebrated for his confrontational and politically opinionated artworks, often based on significant moments in black history. Gatson prefers not to be defined by any single medium, rather thinking of himself as an object maker inspired by Conceptualism and Performance Art.

 

An undeniable energy radiates from Rico Gatson’s new works. Both spiritual and socially constitutive at once, there is, as Gatson says, “a dialogue between things in space. There is a vibration.” Through polyrhythmic geometric patterns and intuitive color decisions, the paintings unlock worlds.

Gatson’s varied practice transcends the labels “abstract” or “figurative.” Paintings with triangles and circles are Council Paintings, says the artist, “it’s a group of forms, loosely figurative in my mind.” The concentric circle motif throughout his work recalls targets, tracking a history of violence and resistance. The mirroring elements allude to islands in space, or to keyholes.

His work is included in the collections of the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Malcolm X Institute, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN; Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.

Works
Biography
Rico Gatson
Rico Gatson

Rico Gatson was a child of both US coasts. Born in Augusta, Ga., and raised in  Riverside, California to a nurse and a landscaper contractor, who had migrated to the East Coast during the Great Migration and joined the newly formed Black middle class. In the 1980s,  Gatson attended Bethel College in Minnesota as an undergraduate pursuing fine art after changing his major from graphic design,  receiving his Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree in 1989.Gatson continued his education at theYale School of Art in 1991 where  he studied sculpture under artist David von Schlegell.

He completed his artist residency at Franconia Sculpture Park, Taylor Falls in 1998 and was an Artist in Residence at the Wright Museum of Art of Beloit College. Over the course of almost two decades, Rico Gatson has become celebrated for his confrontational and politically opinionated artworks, often based on significant moments in black history. Images of riots, fires, and confinement pervade his works, which have touched on a range of subjects like the Watts Riots, the presidential election of Barack Obama, and the formation of the Black Panthers.

 

 

Gatson has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; Scott Miller Projects, Birmingham, AL; Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, MN; Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York, NY; Metropolitan Transportation Authority, New York, NY;  Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, NY; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Samsøñ Projects, Boston, MA; Studio 10, Brooklyn, NY; Wright  Museum of Art, Beloit College, Beloit, WI; Exit Art, New York, NY;  and the Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery at Bennington College, Bennington, VT. His work has been included in group exhibitions at numerous international  institutions including Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; Dieu Donné, New York, NY; The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space, New York, NY; Essl Museum, Vienna, Austria; Jewish Museum, New York, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY; P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY; Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; and La Viellie Chartié, Marseille, France. His work may be found in the collections of the Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN; Denver Art Museum, Denver CO; Kempner Museum, Kansas City, MO; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Malcolm X Institute, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN; Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN; Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC; Peter Norton Family Foundation, Santa Monica, CA; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.

 

He is the recipient of 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. Gatson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

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