RICO GATSON

Miles McEnery Gallery is delighted to announce an exhibition of recent works by Rico Gatson, “Spectral Visions.” The artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery will open on 8 December 2022 and remain on view through 28 January 2023 at 515 West 22nd Street. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring an essay by Siddhartha Mitter.

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. And the ensemble of Totems, what Gatson calls panel paintings, embrace the patterned social and ritual information communicated through textile traditions, such as kente.

Siddhartha Mitter writes, “The variety alone in these works – the patterns that contrast and segment and overlap, the complex bravura coloration – brim with the intuitive confidence of a brilliant and experienced improviser. Gatson’s latest paintings underscore how method – in art as in science – is a gateway rather than a result.”

Rico Gatson (b. 1966 in Augusta, GA) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Bethel College in 1989 and his Master of Fine Arts from Yale School of Art in 1991.

Gatson has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at 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 is included 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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SPECTRAL VISIONS

Installation Views

Selected Works

Press Release