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Richard Waxberg  was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1943. 

He lives and works in Ojai, California.

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See the Cave & Rock Art Talk, April 2021

with Richard Waxberg and Deborah Kerner

on Youtube, part of the Ojai Institute's "Travel with Artists" series.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cRCfnB6JIY

This virtual event was produced for the exhibition Cave Painting, Painted Cave.

A talk with photograps focusing on Cave and Rock Art that Richard and Deborah 

have seen and studied around the world from the American Southwest to India.

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EXHIBITIONS

2020-2021: The Gallery at Hotel Indigo Santa Barbara, California, in partnership

with the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation & the Ojai Institute. Cave Painting,

Painted Cave. Group Show. Painting on Canvas with acrylic inks.

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2019 May-June: Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation / Ojai Institute, Ojai, CA.

Group Show, Creative Community Thomas Fire Recovery Exhibition.

Oil Painting

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2018 March: Porch Gallery, Ojai, CA. Group Show for the Thomas Fire

Artist Recovery. Ink Drawing on Paper

 

1997-1999: Sussex County Community College, Newton, NJ. Group Shows.

Oil Paintings, Linoleum Prints & Drawings.

 

1997: Susan Berke Fine Art Gallery, NYC.

One Person Show. The Rapture of Innocence: The Life and Death of the Gods and Goddesses. Oil Paintings on Canvas. These figurative paintings reflect mythological

themes of the birth and death of ancient deities.

 

1995-2000: Susan Berke Fine Art Gallery, NYC.

Group Shows. Linoprints, Paintings & Drawings. 

 

1993-1994: Rishi Valley School, Andhra Pradesh, India. One Person Shows.

Linoprints, Drawings & Water Colors. 

 

1988: Fashion Moda Contemporary Art Space, South Bronx, NY.

One person show. Oil paintings that result from studies in nature.

 

1986: Arkansas Art Center Museum, Little Rock, Arkansas. Group Show.

Works on Paper.

 

1976: Razor Gallery, SoHo NYC. One Person Show. Materializations Series.

Acrylic Paintings on Canvas. Major show of unstretched large-size canvases

that reflect a new iconographic language with a spiritual conception of space

using poured paint in subtle layers of color.

 

1975: Aames Gallery, SoHo NYC. One Person Show. Materializations Series.

Acrylic Paintings on Canvas. First showing of new series using poured acrylic paint

and personal iconographic glyphs floating in a spatial color field.

 

1974-1977: Aames Gallery, SoHo NYC. Group Shows. Drawings and Prints.

 

1970-1971: Flats Fixed Gallery, SoHo, NYC. One Person Shows. Shows colorful

abstracted forms in multiple sets cut from felt.

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OPEN STUDIO SPACE

Throughout his artistic career, shows his work in his studio to the art community

where he lives. 

2005-Present: Ojai, California. Oil Paintings on Canvas & Drawings on Paper.

2003-2004: Silver City, New Mexico. Mythically themed Oil Paintings on Canvas & Drawings.  

1979-1991: New York City. Man as Machine series, Oil Paintings on Canvas & Drawings.

1970-1977: SoHo, New York City. Oil Paintings on Canvas & Drawings.

 

TEACHING 

2005-Present: Krishnamurti Foundation of America, Ojai, California. Along with his wife, directs and facilitates in-depth philosophical, dialogical-based immersive retreats

called Explorations into Freedom.

1994-2004: Parsons School of Design, NYC. Teaches art, design, art history and aesthetics.

1996-1999: Sussex County Community College, NJ. Teaches art, painting, drawing, design.

1993-1994: Rishi Valley School, Andhra Pradesh, India. Teaches art and design.

1975-1977: Hofstra University, Long Island, NY. Artist Talk & Presentation of Work.

Lectures by invitation on the sources of his artistic approach to painting.

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EDUCATION

1988: Tom Brown Jr.s' Tracker School, on a farm in western New Jersey. To learn wilderness survival skills, tracking and a philosophical approach to living in harmony on Earth. Tom Brown was Americas most renowned Tracker and Wilderness Survival expert. The course is based on the teachings of Stalking Wolf, the Apache elder from whom Tom learned his skills.

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1969: Purchases a loft in New York City's SoHo Arts District and along with several other artists establishes the first artists’ co-op loft building helping to ignite an artistic renaissance. He experiments with new painting techniques using acrylic paints on large unstretched canvases and develops an original iconographic language with works on paper.

 

1961-1964: Attends several colleges in New York City and California including two Art Colleges, but feels this form of education was not instrumental in his development as an artist. It is his own extensive direct studies in museums, art galleries, travels, readings and his active studio work that established the foundation of his artistic life. 

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BIO

2004-Present: Moves west to Ojai, California in 2004. Lives and works in his home / studio expanding his range of interests in mythological, biblical, alchemical and personal iconographic themes through paintings and works on paper.

2003-2004: Lives and works in Silver City, New Mexico studying Native American Art including the Mimbres whose original native culture was located near Silver City. Executes small works on canvas-board translating figurative elements into abstracted linear motifs.

1996-1999: Moves to rural upstate New Jersey with his wife, living on a 300 acre property experiencing the intense beauty of the wildlife and landscape. Works on mythologically theme-based paintings and shows this work at the Susan Berke Fine Art Gallery in New York City.

1993-1994: Lives and teaches in Andhra Pradesh, India for one year. Studies fauna and flora of this south Indian region executing many studies on paper.

1992: Leaves New York City with his wife. Driving across country, spends a year in Ojai, California, where they both study in-depth the work of philosopher J.Krishnamurti and

enter into frequent dialogical discourse.

1984-1989: Each summer drives from New York City with his wife to the American Southwest to study the Rock Art of the early Native American cultures that lived and thrived there.

Long hikes into the canyons take them into visionary Shamanistic worlds depicting alternative perceptual realities. These vast, extraordinary spaces are deeply moving. A new understanding of how closely the early peoples lived in harmony with the earth.

1980-1990: With his wife, participates in and studies Native American Shamanic rituals

and ceremonies for 10 years in Oregon, Nevada, New Hampshire and New York,

working with shamanic elders from several Native American tribes.

1979: Marries artist Deborah Kerner in October.

1978-1992: Moves from SoHo to 27th Street in New York City, where he lives with artist, Deborah Kerner, both using their apartment as painting studios. It is here that he paints his visionary series of 8'x5' oil paintings called Man as Machine, powerful depictions reflecting

a dystopian vision of the consequences that mechanization can potentially have on human

life as we enter an uncertain phase of transhumanism.

1972: Begins work on his first major series of large 9’x10’ paintings, Materializations.

Original abstract iconographic images float within an atmospheric space created by

layering semi-transparent acrylic color washes.

1969-1977: Purchases and moves into a loft on Greene Street in New York City’s downtown SoHo district. Begins intense studies of the effects of time on natural and man-made surfaces around the city and on trips to upstate New York. His artistic practice expands and includes these studies which results in his first major series of paintings. 

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EXTENSIVE TRAVELS & STUDIES WORLDWIDE / 1972-Present 

Travels to many places in the world to study art first hand, both contemporary and historical, as well as architecture and other visual art forms. Actively continues to visit museums, galleries and other artists' studios in Los Angeles and closer to home. 

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• Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Berlin, Paris, London. Contemporary art  • Guatemala & the Yucatan, Mexico. Art of Pre-Columbian Mayan & Olmec cultures  • Western Europe: Spain, France, Italy, England, Holland, Germany, Austria, Greece, Croatia, Czech Republic & Turkey. Many traditions of Western art, including arts of the Byzantine, Ottoman, Hittite & Persian Empires  • Japan. Screens & scrolls of the Edo period & temple architecture  • India & Thailand. Art, textiles & the art of Hindu & Buddhist temples  • American Southwest. Native American Rock Art & Anasazi dwellings  • France. Ancient upper Paleolithic Caves, cave wall paintings and carvings. Medieval art & architecture including tapestries & stained glass windows  • UK. Ancient monolithic sites and early churches

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