Richard Karwoski (1938 - 1993)

Since 1963, Mr. Karwoski had over 40 solo exhibitions and participated in over 500 group shows throughout the United States and Canada. He received innumerable awards, and wrote a book "Watercolors Bright and Beautiful". His work with watercolor furthered the medium, which he felt could make as strong a statement as oil. His art has been the subject of articles and reviews in publications such as The New York Times, Woman's Wear Daily, Arts Magazine, American Artist, and Artspeak.

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1938, he died February 1993. He studied with Richard Lindner (1901-1970) at Pratt Institute, NY and in 1963 received a Masters of Art from Columbia University. He was a professor of Art at the New York City Technical College of City University.

Mr. Karwoski generally worked on one image and one series at a time until he exhausted all possibilities and challenges of that subject.

Early paintings, drawings and collages (1960's) are figural, expressing the angst and wonderment of human form and relationships, inspired by the German Expressionist Movement of the 1920's and 30's. "Contemporary man is beset by hang-ups, and this is the statement that I am making", he said. His paintings and themes are just as relevant today as they were in the 1960's.

In 1970 he began his odyssey into shoes. His grandfather was a shoemaker and Karwoski incorporated his past with his present utilizing painting, works on paper, and assemblage to explore the very personal world of shoes. "The shoe represents freedom and mobility, and like a cave or womb there is no intrusion from the outside world"

In 1978 he moved to flower, fruit, market and bay watercolors, oils, collages and prints inspired by his home and studio surroundings in East Hampton, NY. His bold and beautiful use of watercolors inspired his book "Watercolors Bright and Beautiful" in 1988. Mixed perspectives, dramatic lighting and theme, bold colors, and an absence of gravity while combining believable objects with unnatural space made Mr. Karwoski's paintings alive with movement and vibrancy.

Mr.Karwoski continued to paint and discover until his untimely death in 1993. He has left behind a legacy of important and beautiful works of art as well as a generation of art students that continue his ideals and principals.

His works are in many museum collections, including Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, Newark Museum, Detroit Institute of Art, Portland Museum of Fine Art, Hecksher Museum, Tennessee Fine Art Center, The Portland Museum of Art (Maine), Oklahoma Art Center, and the Arkansas Fine Art Center. He is also in many Public Collections, including Pratt Institute, University of Pennsylvania, The Salmagundi Club, NY, The Library of Congress, Washington, DC, The National Broadcasting Company, New York City Technical College, Chase Manhatten Bank, C.U.N.Y Graduate Center, The Kosciuszko Foundation, NY, and The Exxon Corporation.

He is listed in Who's Who in American Art, American Artists, American Art Directory, Print Directory, Who's Who in the East, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, and Who's Who in Society.

Individual Exhibitions

1979 Gallery East, East Hampton, N.Y.
The Elaine Benson Gallery,
Bridgehampton, N.Y
1978 Petrenko Gallery, New York
C.U.N.YGraduate Center, N.Y.
Merril Lynch Pierce Fenner &
Smith, New York
1977 Clay Gallery, New York
1976 Viridian Gallery, New York
1975 Terrain Gallery, New York
1974 The Open Mind Gallery, New York
1973 Charles Jourdan, New York
1971 Pace College, New York
1969 Grace Gallery, N.Y.C. Community
College, Brooklyn, N.Y.
1968 Spencer Gallery Brooklyn
Heights, NY.
Mineola Playhouse, Mineola, N.Y.
1967 Gallery Articulate, New York
1966 Spencer Gallery, Brooklyn
Heights, N.Y
Collective Exhibitions

1979 Stoutfer Chemical Corporation,
Westport, Conn.
Terrain Gallery New York,
"Kindness in Art"
Gallery East, East Hampton, N.Y,
'Members' Show"
Washington, World Gallery Quito,
Ecuador, S.A.
Guild Hall, East Hampton, N.Y.,
"Members' Exhibition"

Leslie-Lohman Gallery New York
Guild Hall, East Hampton, N.Y.,
"Annual Clothesline Exhibition'
1979 Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton,
NY., "Angry Artists Against
Atomic Activity"
Fire Island Pines, Fire Island,
NY., "Art '79"
Ashwagh Hall, East Hampton,
NY., "Springs Artists"
Adam Sytra Exhibit, Doylestown,P~
Great American Foot-' 'On
Tour," Junior Art Center-Los
Angeles, Cal.; Fine Arts Museum
of San Francisco, Cal.; Bellevue
Art Museum-Bellevue,
Washington; Milwaukee Art
Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Guild Hall Museum, East Hamp-
ton, N Y., "Selections from the
Permanent Collection"
1978 Heckscher Museum, Huntington,
NY "Sixth Annual Holiday Ex-
hibition"
Jerry Gilden Gallery Baltimore,
Maryland
Venable Galleries,Washington, D.(
Eighth Greater New Orleans Ex-
hibition, New Orleans, La.
O.l.A., New York, "Post Card Ex-
hibition"
Terrain Gallery New York, "An-
nual Exhibition of Miniatures"
Gallery East, East Hampton, N.Y.,
"East Hampton Winter"
Grace Gallery N.Y.C. Community
College, Brooklyn Faculty/Art
Department
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma
City Oklahoma, "Cityscape"
The Heckscher Museum, Hun-
tington, N.Y., "Artists ot Sutfolk
County-Drawings"
Vered International Gallery East
Hampton, N.Y.
Petrenko Gallery New York
West Texas Watercolor Associa-
tion-The Museum ot Texas Tech
University Lubbock, Texas
1978 Silvermine Guild of Artists 29th
Annual New england Exhibition of
Painting and Sculpture
Viridian Gallery New York
1978 The Museum of Contemporary
Crafts, New York
1977 Viridian Gallery New York
Terrain Gallery New York,
"Miniatures"
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma
City OkIa., "Manscape"
Clay Gallery New York
Grace Gallery N.Y.C. Community
College, Brooklyn, N.Y.
1976 Viridian Gallery New York
Terrain Gallery New York,
"Art as Criticism"

Terrain Gallery New York,
"Miniatures"
Terrain Gallery New York,
"The Philosophy of Watercolor"
1975 Terrain Gallery New York,
"Miniatures"
Tower Gallery New York,
"The Condition of the Tie Today
1974 Clovelly Lane Gallery New York
Terrain Gallery New York
Royal Marks Gallery New York
The Gallery Association of N.Y.
State, Inc., "Counter Currents:
The New Humanism"
Oueensboro Community College
Grace Gallery N.Y.C. Community
College, Brooklyn, N.Y.
1973 Aida Hernandez Gallery New
York, "Tiny Things by Big Folks"
Grace Gallery N.Y.C. Community
College, Brooklyn, "The New
Humanists: Art in a Time of
Change"
1972 Brentanos, New York
Odyssey Gallery New York
1971 Allen Oppegard Gallery New York
Addison Greene Gallery
New York
1969 Gallery 252, Philadelphia, Pa.
Greenport Playhouse,
Greenport, N.Y.
1967 Channel Gallery Washington, D.C.
1966 American Federation of Art,
"The Dark Mirror"
Hinkley and Brohel, New York
1965 Fantasy Gallery Washington, D.C.
Flair House Gallery Cincinnati,
Ohio
1964 Nordness Gallery New York
Contemporaries Gallery
New York