Alexander Richard-Wilson

This will be the first solo exhibition of Alexander Richard-Wilson. Burning Butte, a collection of gestural landscapes in unrest and during a time of unrest. The artist moved from Chicago to Denver in midst of a pandemic, political unrest , and then to be confronted with the scorching of the Colorado mountains. In the pursuit of an aesthetic symbiotic reverence—there is an earnest reflection of the state of the world and the inner turmoil of the artist, as a Black person living in 2020 and now 2021.

Curated by KJ Freeman

Upon moving to Colorado, I was transfixed by the derogatory way the landscape is framed, treated and attacked in the United States , much like the black body in space. The landscape burned, we were inundated. I feel there is an importance in representing this period of change in the United States of America, from the hand of a black perspective and handling. the landscape has become myself. The landscape is for you. The landscape needs reconciliation. I need reconciliation. The experiences I’ve had within my black body color my everyday, and as I’ve witnessed the way the American landscape can be so casually burned and spurned by its occupiers, denied its dignity by the settlements that rely on its willingness to accept abuse, and even burned by the very people who claim patriot, I found myself identifying with the landscape.

Alexander Richard-Wilson​ is an African-American contemporary artist living and working in Denver metropolitan area. Born and raised in Saint Louis, Missouri, (1993) and formally educated at the Art Institute of Chicago. His painting practice references the spaces and depths of American landscapes, and the literal relationships between figurative shapes. Emotionally, he works to reference his history as the product of a large, African American family, and his present context as a queer Black person.