Richard Gaines is a mixed media artist whose work concerns positions occupied by black men in today’s world, particularly how black men are viewed by those who are not black. He creates work that visually addresses the absurd nature of fears regarding racism. He often makes collage from found materials — using sardonic humor to depict racial stereotypes. His pieces expose the ridiculous, contradictory and the improbable. In the course of living within and traveling across metropolitan spaces, Gaines finds and embeds imagery, bits of newspaper and strange objects encountered by chance in roughly painted “wonderlands” — raw contexts for slick, commercial, but emotionally engaging pop archetypes, that are broadly shared.  Richard Gaines has a BFA from School of Visual Art in New York City. He’s a former educator and inclusion coordinator who ran a collaborative program between the Newark School System and the Montclair Museum. He continues to develop a collection of artwork that depicts his interest in the black male experience.

Exhibition curated by Mary Z