Richard Hambleton: Eternity

ACA Galleries is pleased to announce Richard Hambleton: Eternity on view June 14 through July 27, 2018 (529 West 20th Street, NYC). This exhibition showcases major paintings and works on paper from Hambleton's two signature series - Shadowmen and Horse & Rider. Widely considered the “Godfather of Street Art” his contemporaries included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Andy Warhol.

Exhibition highlights include: a colossal un-stretched canvas with five life-sized trademark Shadowmen figures; several large single Shadowmen; and Rodeo paintings on canvas – these prime examples demonstrate Hambleton’s ability to expressively combine representation and gestural abstraction. Coming out of private collections the majority of these works have never been exhibited before.

Initially recognized for his Mass Murder Series where he created bloody “crime scenes” with splattered red paint outlining the forms of “homicide victims”; and I Only Have Eyes For You, a series of stenciled self-portraits wheat-pasted throughout the city. The printed images were fragile and impermanent, eventually fading into “white shadows”. He went on to cover the streets with his legendary Shadowmen - quickly executed black painted silhouette figures which lurked in unexpected corners and alleys and became synonymous with 80s New York. Later he translated these figures to canvas and paper and developed his popular Horse and Rider - Rodeo themed artworks. 

Hambleton is another contemporary artist whose works seems intent on changing the way we look at the heroic abstract paintings of the 1950s and 60s. - Michael Brenson (New York Times, 1985)

About Richard Hambleton:

Richard Hambleton, born in Vancouver, Canada moved to New York in the late 1970s. Along with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hambleton established himself as one of the top artists working in New York City in the 1980s. Hambleton considered his work to be public art where the city itself served as both canvas and subject matter. He was included in the Venice Biennale in 1984 and 1988. In 2009, a major exhibition, "Richard Hambleton - New York" opened in collaboration with Armani in London. The exhibition toured to multiple venues including the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Recently, Hambleton was featured in the exhibition, Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A feature length documentary about Richard Hambleton’s life and work premiered last year at the Tribeca Film Festival, titled “Shadowman”, before being bought and distributed worldwide by Amazon.