FOMA: “We, the People”

Artist Reception:
Saturday 23rd August, 4 – 6pm

Show runs until August 29th, 2025
or by appointment until September 5th

FOMA
Guadalupe Center, 333 Montezuma Ave Unit B
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 660-0121

We, the People is a compelling new solo exhibition by Bob Richardson, opening August 16 at FOMA Gallery. This deeply human collection of portraits spans a wide emotional and social landscape—featuring individuals from all walks of life, including, but not limited to, those living on the margins.

“I’ve painted most of my life,” says Richardson, “but it wasn’t until about 25 years ago that I was able to commit to painting full time—initially exploring abstraction. Over time, my focus shifted to people and to telling the stories that live behind their faces.”

That shift grew more personal during the past decade, particularly while spending time in Albuquerque. “I found myself paying close attention to the people around me—on sidewalks, in neighborhoods, in passing moments. Some were clearly struggling with visible hardship. Others were simply navigating the quiet complexities of daily life.”

The portraits reflect this range. There are depictions of those facing addiction, poverty, or incarceration—but these are part of a broader, more inclusive tapestry. Richardson’s work honors everyday people; the thread connecting them is empathy, observation, and a deep commitment to representing humanity without judgment.

“These aren’t imagined figures,” he says. “They’re people I’ve encountered. Every portrait began with a real connection, even if just a glance. I wanted to bear witness.”

Some of the faces may seem joyful or contemplative; others more weathered by experience. Together, they form a moving collective portrait of life—its burdens and beauty, its fragility and grace.

We, the People is not only an exhibition—it’s an invitation to slow down and look again. To consider the faces around us, and how each one holds a story worth seeing.

Dark matter, light touch

Bob Richardson paints it like he sees it, and that means representing the light along with the dark.

“When I paint,” he writes on his website, “I work to capture an unrehearsed moment of someone’s life.” Unrehearsed is a quality that permeates much of his art. A latecomer to painting, he is largely self-taught. Nonetheless – or perhaps as a result – he does not shy away from challenging subject matter and introduces levity into scenes that might otherwise appear grim.

Richardson, whose work will be on view in the Bareiss Gallery starting Saturday (July 10), took a roundabout path to painting. Raised in New Jersey, he spent his Saturdays at the Art Students League of New York, a school with an independent spirit at which Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko all studied.

“As a kid that was the coolest thing I could do,” Richardson writes.

After high school, Richardson attended Bard College, also in New York – only to drop out after his junior year.

“It just wasn’t me,” he offers. For years after that, he traveled around the country, living for a while in Aspen, Colorado, then in San Francisco, California, and worked odd jobs. On his way to Mexico for a trip, he stopped in Santa Fe. There he ran a successful carpentry business before settling into painting full-time, 20 years ago.

At first, Richardson identified as an abstract painter. But, the more time he spent at the easel, the more he began to feel himself a figurative artist. Like Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud before him, he found infinite mystery and possibility in representing the human body. He began “slowly transitioning my paintings to reflect my insights of people.”

Today, Richardson’s paintings capture the unidealized and idiosyncratic human experience.

“I’m an outsider looking in on human activity of no particular importance,” he writes. It is these “unimportant” moments, he notes, that “reveal so much.”

Richardson observes his subjects with a sharp eye. In the last decade, he has amassed a body of work that ranges from paintings of animals – he has done several of dogs, some posed in armchairs and others sporting costumes – to likenesses of people from all walks of life. One series features Arizona sunbathers snacking in swimsuits, rearranging towels on loungers and scrolling through their smartphones.

Unsparing as they are, Richardson’s paintings reveal compassion on the part of the artist. One depicts a man who, ravaged by age, exhibits a certain gravitas. The sex worker represented in triplicate in Miss California stands with dignity, even as she fumbles with her keys and squints into the sun.

It is no wonder Richardson is able to paint the downtrodden with compassion; the artist spent much of his own youth feeling lost and out of place.

“Once you’ve seen the darkness, it’s always there,” he says. “You can be as happy as you want, but there’s always that darkness.”

Richardson’s paintings combine dark and light to produce an effect that is at the same time unsettling and comforting. They invite the viewer to recognize themselves in the dismal subjects Richardson captures and to find belonging among a group of misfits. Of painting, Richardson says, “I felt this was where I was supposed to be my whole life.”

“People I Know” will be on view in the Bareiss Gallery on Saturday-Sundays, July 10-11, 17-18 and 24-25 from 1-5 p.m., and by appointment. The opening reception will take place Saturday (July 10) from 1-5 p.m. At 3 p.m. Sunday (July 11) will be a panel discussion about figurative art with Bob Richardson and fellow artists Erin Currier, Christopher Benson and Sarah Stolar. Ann Landi, contributing editor at ARTnews and a writer for the arts and culture section of The Wall Street Journal, will moderate.

Bareiss Gallery, established in 1982 by Philip Bareiss, specializes in contemporary art and large scale sculpture of Taos and the Southwest. In addition to Bob Richardson, artists whose works are featured in the gallery include Larry McLaughlin, Norbert Voelkel and Michelle Cooke. The gallery also works as an art brokerage, helping clients sell works from their collections.

To learn more about Richardson and his art, visit bobrichardsonstudio.com. For more about Bareiss Gallery, see taosartappraisal.com.

—
original article by Stella Leitner: Dark matter, light touch | ‘People I Know,’ works by Bob Richardson on view in the Bareiss Gallery

Bareiss Gallery: People I Know

Opening Reception July 10, 1 - 5 pm
Open weekends July 10-24, and by Appointment

Good Friends of Mine
10 x 13.5 in
oil on wood panel

Bareiss Gallery
15NM-150
El Prado NM, 87529
575.776.2284​

A panel discussion about figurative art with Bob Richardson, Erin Currier, Christopher Benson, and Sarah Stolar, moderated by Ann Landi, will take place at the gallery on July 11th at 3 p.m.

Evoke Contemporary: INTERLOPERS | Works on Paper

I'm happy and pleased to  say

come 

at 5:00 to 7:00 on April 26th.

to

Evoke Gallery 

and see the show...

I’ve got the good fortune to be part of 

this  really great exhibition

550 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501

Through May 25, 2019

Downed By Her

24x18

charcoal collage

What is Drawing? Vasari 21

I’ve drawn from models forever. I like the quick sketches. I draw on top of drawings. I like to erase. I like all the energy. I also like the single line…the quality of line, the elegance. So recently, I started culling out 50 pads of life drawings, thinking I’ll throw away the bad and put the rest back into eternal storage. While doing this, I see all these drawings, some with good bones, each on their own page and for the most part with no story. Complete them. Give them the story. Whatever that means. So I start cutting them out. I isolate the figure from all the clutter. I collage them. I move them around. I create dialogue. It’s been an exciting couple of weeks.

Statement Originally found on Vasari 21

Bob Richardson, Untitled (2018), collage and drawing, 24 by 18 inches

An Interesting Poke in the Eye

The other day my agents come over… to take some pictures. I’ve been working on a painting; it’s on my easel. She, my agent, says…”that’s interesting” and that’s as comforting as a poke in the eye. To my defense… and it’s a good defense… I’m not done with it, but all it needs is just…. Well two more weeks of a lot of work and it’s almost done and all it needs is just …. again and again. 

It’s daunting… not that I would trade my brushes in for anything else but how do you know the next move. I stand back and doubt everything… what now? 

What’s curious is the painting … I just found this out though I probably knew this before and maybe writing gives it more permanence… the painting comes to my rescue. It offers me a dialogue. 

It tells me... you need work here and now over here. And if I don’t get in the way… preserving precious errors…. it does find it’s way and if I follow the clues I can finish. Really though, I have no idea if this awesome insight will work tomorrow. I don’t know if writing will really give it more permanence. Some days seem easier then others. With art you’re on your own. Do what you can.  

My Agents Made Me Do It

My agents told me I needed to start blogging. ..so this is the start. 
They said write about why I paint. I started thinking about it and I thought more importantly ….why didn’t I paint . 
I could say I had a young family, needed a job, pay the bills etc. etc.  all of which carries some truth. But… being  more introspective… art and artists scare me and I guess if I’m an artist now I scare myself.
Art is not level and plumb… I spent a lot of years in construction. Art is whatever you want it to be… though between me and myself I argue that position all the time. Yet, the bottom line …. art is freedom of expression and that’s damn frightening to some of us.  
I like making and building things. I like the crafts. Am I a painter or an artist? Is there a distinction? In my small mind, I think so. Artist sounds so unbounded. Painter comes with inherent dimensions; so does the sound of writers or sculptors. Until I get a new suit of clothes I’m more comfortable to be known as a painter.