page_title: Richard Whitten
section_title: Life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Whitten / Life and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Richard Whitten, "Gouverneur de Vapeur" (Steam Engine governor), Oil on Wood Panel, 27" x 23.5" 2019
context_page_description: Richard Whitten is a painter and sculptor of mixed Asian and American ancestry working in Rhode Island. His early work could loosely be termed geometric abstractions, but he is best known for his later representational paintings that combine an interest in architecture, invented machinery and toys. Whitten is also known for his toy-like sculptures. Whitten was the chair of the art department at Rhode Island College and continues to teach there as part of the faculty.
  Whitten's work has been displayed in solo exhibitions at the Newport Art Museum, the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, WA, and the Zillman Art Museum.
  As of 2017, Whitten has been represented by Art Mora Gallery in New York, New Jersey, and Seoul, South Korea, and the William Scott Gallery in Provincetown, MA. He has been represented by the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA since 2009.
context_section_description: A native of New York City, Whitten attended the Collegiate School.  He studied economics at Yale where he received his BA in 1980.  He subsequently constructed a personal painting program at Yale, studying with Gretna Campbell and Samia Halaby.  In 1987, he received an MFA at the University of California, Davis, under the instruction of Wayne Thiebaud, Squeak Carnwath, David Hollowell, Mike Henderson, Manuel Neri, Harvey Himelfarb, and Robert Arneson.  He began teaching at Penn State in 1989.  Later, he moved to Rhode Island where he became professor of Painting at Rhode Island College in 2006. Presently he continues in his position of Professor of painting.  Whitten's paintings and drawings are representational but have strong ties to geometric abstration.
  Whitten's work has been discussed in the feature article, "Richard Whitten: Portals to the Unconscious" by Holly Davis in Artists Magazine, Jan/Feb 2017 issue.  His work was included in the Rhode Island PBS video series: "Networks 2015-2016.  His paintings have been featured on the cover of both Artist Magazine (October 2017) and American Psychologist Magazine (January 2016).
  In 2017 he was invited to speak at the "Presence of China: International Contemporary Art Forum", Sanya, Hainan Province, China.
  Whitten and his wife Jeanne live in Rhode Island.
caption: 1 Whitten Gouverneur de vapeur
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