"All Yours"

PRESS RELEASE

Willy Bo Richardson

Skot Foreman Gallery, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

15 December 2021 – 5 Jan 2022

Skot Foreman is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Willy Bo Richardson, the artist’s first show in Mexico. In his new series “All Yours”, Richardson explores new mediums and materials. Intensely hued waves, rays of light, passages of consonance and dissonance float on the toothless surface of yupo.

Richardson’s new expansive paintings explore the phenomena of light reflection and refraction, and simplified forms of atmospheric elements. Working in watercolor, gouache and acrylic, Richardson layers bands of color in space. In paintings like All Yours 13, the waves of color are pared down into undulating ripples of lilac, pink or blue, implying the constant movement of water as it seemingly changes color under the sky. In All Yours 15, the subtle, near monochromatic palette possesses an ethereal, emotional quality, implying the feeling of peace and calm right before dusk. Other paintings glow like rays of the sun splayed out in a pinwheel of vivid, colorful lines. Their prismatic colors seem to jump off the paper. Richardson states, “Water based media on yupo behaves like steam wafting through the air from a cup of tea. It yields unexpected and constantly changing results.”

Richardson first fell in love with Mexico as a foreign exchange student in Oaxaca in 1990. He continues to feel at home in Oaxaca and Mexico City, and is fascinated by the rich cultural and artistic merits and history of Mexico. This will be the artist’s first visit to San Miguel. Richardson taught painting and color theory at Santa Fe University of Art and Design from 2009-2016. He was fortunate to teach students in exchange from Universidad del Valle de México. He found their innate graphic sensibility to be totally inspiring and continues a creative dialogue with his former students to this day.

Willy Bo Richardson lives and works in Santa Fe, NM. He completed his MFA in Painting at Pratt Institute in 2000 and his BA in Studio Art at University of Texas at Austin in 1996. Richardson’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Richard Levy Gallery, New Mexico among others. His work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions including 70 Years of Abstract Painting – Excerpts at Jason McCoy Gallery. The show assembled works by a selection of modern and contemporary painters, including Josef Albers, Hans Hofmann and Jackson Pollock. In 2012 he showed a body of work in the exhibition "Watercolors”" at the Phillips de Pury headquarters in Chelsea New York. His work and vision was featured on the PBS weekly arts series ¡COLORES!. Public collections include the Albuquerque Museum. Richardson was awarded a residency at Tamarind Institute and was a SITE Santa Fe SPREAD finalist.

For further information: 212.452.2000 or skot212@gmail.com