Richard Alpert

Richard H. Alpert is an installation, video artist, painter, sculptor, draftsman, photographer, and performance artist who has been exhibiting across the United States and internationally since...

Richard H. Alpert is an installation, video artist, painter, sculptor, draftsman, photographer, and performance artist who has been exhibiting across the United States and internationally since 1974. Countries Richard has exhibited in include South Korea, Japan, and France. Notable solo exhibitions include a feature at the San Francisco Art Institute, California State University at San Jose, and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art. Richard received a fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1979 and his work remains in the permanent collections of the Museum of Conceptual Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and the Rueben H. Fleet Science Center. In 2019, he participated frequently in various film festivals and notable publications include Artforum, Artweek, San Francisco Bay Guardian, and the Library of Congress. 

The most recent work from Richard’s portfolio includes Gestural Wire Drawings, Pretty Sure, Giant Mic., and Primary Traces series. The two series with the most similarity include Gestural Wire Drawings and Primary Traces as they both contain sculptural elements, abstracted form, and use of bright colors. Richard focuses on creating either extreme angular abstracted structures or ironic concepts. In Pretty Sure for example, he plays on the dichotomy of the word ‘pretty’ because the word conveys both aesthetics and negativity, depending on the usage in a sentence. Richard writes repetitive phrases with the word ‘pretty’ to create compulsive geometric compositions of inner-reflective rectangles. 

In terms of commonality, traits which are a signature of Richard’s art include variation and a sense of playfulness in regards to color and child-like structures, particularly with Primary Traces which may resemble circus props, carnival rides, or toys. Usually using primary colors in his work, Richard seems to have a fascination with red, yellow, and blue, while sometimes incorporating white. 

Gestural Wire Drawings (pictured above) remains among Richard’s most fascinating works in regards to the sheer illusory nature of the pieces. Although these works are referred to as ‘drawings’, they are in fact sculptural installations of wires bound and sculpted together in angular forms while suspended in the air. Richard applies a steady, gentle flow of air to the 3-D ‘drawings’ to make them gently turn, he then films the entire production with his own digitized musical score. These works in film may have the appearance of being digital, even though they are not, because of the gradual spray-painted tones on the wires and the gentle turning of the subject resembling a 3-D computer model in space. As analog sculptures, Gestural Wire Drawings convey a deep angular aesthetic similar to how one might admire the form of a Mercedes-Benz. While they may seem chaotic, the nature of the wire keeps the other wires bound within themselves, as the sculpture remains tied down amongst itself, kind of like controlled chaos.  

Richard Alpert represents an astonishing career with a varied portfolio which exemplifies the inner workings of the mind as well as dynamic studies in structure. Through a playful nature with sophisticated integration of color and linear form, Richard expresses his conceptual and configurative desires. These energized works contain a conceptual spirit and confrontation towards unfamiliar design principles regarding linear angularity and geometric aesthetics.

Artist website: https://www.richardalpertartist.com

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