ryder richards trash bag drawing
“American Drawing: T-Square” [2018] graphite, pigment on paper_ 30″x22″

Marginal Revolution

solo exhibition by Ryder Richards

Crate: Project [link]
Asheville, NC
Oct 23- Nov 27, 2018

Ryder’s latest works are a series of drawings of tools wrapped in trash bags. Continuing his discussion of invisible labor, class, and politics the works consider the tendency to marginalize and disenfranchise.

Richards often utilizes tools and acts of labor as a means to embody the individual’s ability within a larger system. In this case logging his hours as he practices his craft produces a conversation about normative valuation of physical utility over reliance on beauty or concept alone. In microcosm, this small move reflects the larger tendency to value individuals for their utility, seeing them as tools to be used, weaponized, and discarded when convenient.

Raised in Roswell, New Mexico Ryder is based outside of McKinney, Texas. He has exhibited internationally, attended many art residencies, curated numerous exhibitions, and maintains a condensed art review publication, Eutopia: Contemporary Art Review. Some of his more interesting projects include converting a Ryder truck into a nomadic art gallery, co-founding a national arts collective, and re-sheetrocking a gallery as an art exhibition.