Richard Negri

I came to painting by way of wood carving at the beginning of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic escalated. My paintings of mostly imagined faces are deeply informed by various aspects of my life: as well as being an entirely self-taught artist, I am also a musician and writer, and I work full-time for a labor union. Deeply ingrained in me is the concept of community building and allowing time and space for meaningful engagements to occur between people. My paintings are fueled by my love for and belief in people, and so they are manifestations of empathy for all of our human experiences -- joy and sadness, fear and anger, contentment and craving.

I share a large majority of the faces I paint on Instagram accompanied by flash fiction. I frequently feel like I am the paintings' eyewitness reporter, simply facilitating their images to be seen and snippets of their voices to be heard. If there are words to describe my "style," beyond expressionist, contemporary, and abstract portraiture, I'd say "free form" would be the most accurate. I have no blueprint or reference photo, and I usually have no idea who will be arriving on the canvas when I begin to paint or what their story will be, but I am always interested to find out.

Click here to read more about my art.