Biography
artist
statement
curriculum
vitae
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links
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Born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1930, Richard Reid now lives
in Christina Lake, British Columbia, 300 miles east of Vancouver.
After graduating high school, Richard attended the Manitoba Technical
Institute and received a Diploma in Architectural Drawing. In
the following year, he entered the School of Art at the University
of Manitoba and received his BFA in 1955. He lived and
worked in Mexico for several months, and then lived and painted
from 1960 - 64 in Europe. He was Chairman of Young Commonwealth
Artists, London, England, 1961-64. He returned to Canada
in 1964. From 1965 to 1970, he taught with the Vancouver
School Board in the Adult Education Program. From 1970
to 1979, he was with the Fine Arts Department at the University
of British Columbia, as Assistant Professor and Chairman of the
BFA Program. After leaving Vancouver, Richard became the
founding Director of the Grand Forks Art Gallery (1984-2003)
and a teacher in Emily Carr College of Art & Design's Outreach
Program. He has received three Canada Council awards, and
was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2004.
He was an Advisory Board Director of CARFAC-BC from 1999 to 2006.
For more complete
details see: Curriculum
Vitae
At art school,
(U. of Man. BFA 1955), Richard Reid began his work primarily
as a printmaker exploring the various qualities of intaglio printing,
(etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint, etc). With the
prints, the essence of his work had clear 'painterly' attributes.
This awareness led to more and more frequent use of oil, acrylic
and watercolour painting as the media that suited his sensual
approach to the figure and landscape, and the transfiguration
of one into the other. The work is perhaps an exploration
of the iconic human / land relationship and its place in the
human psyche. This provides a condition for the mind and eye
to linger in contemplation of personal experience and response.
There is a subtle narrative, expressing the diversity and interconnectedness
of ecological systems and of our human place in it. ....read
more - artist statement
Reid's work has
been widely exhibited nationally and internationally in over
80 solo and group exhibitions, and is in public collections that
include the: Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta; Grand Forks
Art Gallery, Grand Forks, BC; Leighton Foundation, Calgary, Alberta;
Penticton Art Gallery, Penticton, BC; Richmond Art Gallery, Vancouver,
BC; Sarnia Art Gallery, Sarnia, Ontario; Sharecom Industries,
Dewinton (Calgary), Alberta; University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
Manitoba; University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC; University
of Victoria - Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery - Coast Art Trust
Collection; and numerous private collections.
He has received
awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, 1963, 1964, and
1967; the BC Arts Council - Honor Roll, 1999, Assembly of BC
Arts Councils - Arts and Culture Arts Champion Award - 2005,
and in 2004 he was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of
Arts (RCA).
Richard
Reid lives at Christina Lake and maintains a studio in Grand
Forks, British Columbia. Beverley Reid is an artist
working primarily with fibre/fabric. Please visit her web
site.
"The paintings continue to bear witness to [...] great humanistic
tradition and make no attempt to be anything other than what
they are. What we see may be at variance with prevailing trends
and artistic fashions of today where "theory" generates
visual art and professional advancement. Reid's paintings continue
to provide that sensuous pleasure for the eye, a vicarious participation
in the artist's intense pleasure with the materials at hand,
and the passion inspired by the presence of the figure and nature
itself. The warmth implied by such an encounter and Reid's unwavering
commitment to the limitless possibilities of applied pigments
affirms the persistent creativity of the human spirit".
Roger
Boulet, 2009 link
to complete essay
in the Variance exhibition catalogue
"His
visual language occupies a space that exists between that which
is recognizable and that which is imaginary, and in the end functions
as a narrative that tells the story of his life-long affair with
image making"
Helen Sebelius - curatorial essay for the exhibition Variance
- Kootenay Gallery 2009
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Richard Reid - all rights reserved |
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