Rico Gatson
Hyphens in the Road, 2012
Hyphens in the Road by Rico Gatson is an edition of acrylic paint on pigmented cotton and linen in five variations. The imagery of the highway, a symbol used in popular culture to represent the uncertain possibilities of the future, conveys a journey that the artist states is “personal and universal, physical and spiritual.” Gatson draws his title from the book “The Warmth of Other Suns” about the Great Migration, referencing a cross-country journey that was not untypical for many during that period.
Artwork description courtesy of Dieu Donné
Rico Gatson, Hyphens in the Road, 2012. Pigmented cotton and linen base sheet, acrylic paint, 13.5 x 11 inches. 3, Edition of 25, 5. Image courtesy of Dieu Donné.
Rico Gatson, Hyphens in the Road, 2012. Pigmented cotton and linen base sheet, acrylic paint, 13.5 x 11 inches. 5, Edition of 25, 5. Image courtesy of Dieu Donné.
About the Artist
Rico Gatson (b. 1966, Augusta, GA) is a Brooklyn based artist mixed media artist most well known for merging abstraction with representations of Black political, spiritual, and cultural themes He 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 a residency at Franconia Sculpture Park, Taylor Falls, MN in 1998. In 2005 he lectured at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York and in 2013, Gatson was the Keynote speaker for the Ginsberg Artist in Residence at the Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College, Beloit, WI.
He has exhibited nationally and internationally with recent solo exhibitions including Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “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, NY and “History Lessons,” Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
Recent group exhibitions include “Sacred Spaces: Art and Spirituality at the Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York,” Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York, New York, NY; “Recognition and Response: Rico Gatson and David Huffman,” Miles McEnery Gallery at The Armory Show, New York, NY; “Dialogues in African American Abstract Painting” (curated by Dr. Beth Hinderliter), Duke Gallery of Fine Art at James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA; “Re:Growth, A Celebration of Art, Riverside Park, and the New York Spirit” (curated by Karin Bravin and presented by The Riverside Park Convervancy), New York, NY; “Visions and Nightmares,” Simone Subal Gallery, New York, NY; “Naked in Brooklyn,” Perogi, Brooklyn, NY; “Wood, Works: Raw, Cut, Carved, Covered,” Sperone Westwater, New York, NY; “Light” (curated by Rico Gatson), Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “True Lines,” Over The Influence, Los Angeles, CA; “New Symphony of Time,” Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS; “Historicity,” Ochi Projects, Los Angeles, CA; “Summer 2019,” Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York, NY; “Art + Activism: Drawing the Line,” Children’s Museum of Art, New York, NY; “Jazz and Love,” La Viellie Chartié, Marseille, France; “Identity Document,” Gallery Bergen, Bergen Community College, Paramus, NJ; “We the People,” Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN; “1967: Parallels in Black Art and Rebellion,” Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI; “Art on the Front Lines,” Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY; “Phantom,” OSMOS, New York, NY; “Accumulation: 5000 Years of Objects, Fictions, and Conversations,” Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA; “Every Five Minutes,” Columbus State University, Columbus, GA; “Language Product,” Boston Arts Academy, Boston, MA; “When Artists Speak Truth...,” The 8th Floor, New York, NY and “Magic Objects” (curated by Rico Gatson), 99 Cent Plus Gallery, New York, NY. including The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; The Armory Show, New York, NY;
Gatsons works are in the public collections of the Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, TN; Bethel College, St Paul, MN; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; The Kempner Museum of Art at Washington University, St Louis, MO; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN; Norton Family Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; The Studio Museum of Harlem, New York; and 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.