Richard Roth
“Spuyten Duyvil”
New York, 539 West 23rd Street
To begin, Roth develops his ideas using a prototype process. Each work is roughly drafted from a quickly developed idea in the form of a prototype panel. This allows the artist to gain an understanding of the painting before it is then translated into its final form as a richly polychromed object that hovers on the wall between sculpture and painting. The final forms are a tantalizing mix of the artist’s preciseness with a sense of playfulness and delight.
Exposed pencil marks and “slight deviations in the paint” act as evidence or a byproduct of the artist’s hand in creating the work; while their reductive, straightforward aesthetic speaks to Roth’s love of, and connection to, “product and package design, nature, architecture, masks, custom cars and fashion.” The exhibition is entitled, Spuyten Duyvil, as the namesake of a featured piece in this body of work, and makes reference to early New York lore, and its name derivation of Spuyten Duyvil Creek.
Roth’s works have been exhibited nationally and internationally. In 1991 he was the recipient of a Visual Artists Fellowship in Painting from the National Endowment for the Arts. A selected exhibition history includes: David Richard Contemporary, NY and Santa Fe, NM; Valletta Contemporary, Malta; Galerie Rob de Vries, The Netherlands; HICA, Highland Institute of Contemporary Art, Loch Ruthven, Scotland; The Suburban, Oak Park, IL; Rocket Gallery, London; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA; UCR/California Museum of Photography; the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan; Feigen, Inc., Chicago; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; OK Harris Gallery, NY; and Castelli Warehouse, NY.
Richard Roth is the co-editor of the book, Beauty is Nowhere: Ethical Issues in Art and Design and co-author of two books – Color Basics and Design Basics 3D. His debut novel, NoLab, will be released November 2019 by Owl Canyon Press.
