Exhibit: Saturday, July 6, through Sunday, January 5
Artist Talk: Thursday, July 11, 6:30 p.m.
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
The talents of a uniquely gifted Quad Cities photographer will bring dazzling life, of all kinds, to the walls of the Figge Art Museum July 6 through January 5, with the venue's Lewis Gallery showcasing astounding natural beauty in Randy Richmond: Verisimilitude, a local exhibition of modern works steeped in centuries of artistic tradition.
Randy Richmond: Verisimilitude features a series of 10 large-format photographs inspired by Western art's historical traditions. In these stunning works, Quad City artist and photographer Randy Richmond combines aspects of the still life – or nature morte – paintings of the Northern Renaissance with the dramatic lighting found in Neoclassical portraiture of the 18th and early-19th Centuries and the soft focus of Pictorialist photography of the early-20th Century.
The subjects of Richmond's photographs are careful arrangements of found objects combined with taxidermy animals or mounts from the collections of St. Ambrose University and the Nature Center at Nahant Marsh. Utilizing characteristics of the three art historical movements, Richmond blends the objects, animals and influences into story-filled images. Unlike works created in the studio of a 16th-Century Dutch painter, Richmond's arrangements are set outdoors. The mysterious and compelling works that result provide hints of the life lessons of the beauty and fragility of the natural world and the specter of its eventual demise.
Stretching the edges of the photographic image to tell a story has been the focus of Richmond's work since his student days at the University of Iowa. Richmond has shown his work in numerous solo, group, invitational, and juried exhibits nationally and internationally, and his interpretation of environmental issues has been the focus of special exhibits created for the Door County Land Trust, the Keeweenaw Land Trust, and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. His work is in permanent collections of the Center For Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado; Kishwaukee College in Malta, Illinois; Project Art of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics; and Davenport's St. Ambrose University, where Richmond teaches photography as an adjunct instructor.
An Artist Talk with Richmond will be held at the Figge at 6:30 p.m. on July 11, and Randy Richmond: Verisimilitude will be on display July 6 through January 5, with regular museum hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursdays, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Museum admission is $4-10, and more information on Verisimilitude and the venue's other exhibits and programs is available by calling (563)326-7804 or visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
