Paradox & Conformity Paintings, Prints & Planes by Richard Deon

The Exhibition: Paradox and Conformity— Paintings, Prints & Planes by Richard DeonRichard Deon’s work is deeply inspired by his childhood education when he was taught history from outdated American social studies textbooks that included illustrations reflecting the so-called “consensus history” of the 1950s in the United States. A major influence for the artist has been the book Visualized Civics, published to teach—through illustrations and text—social behaviors and concepts to the young generation of American citizens of the time.

Through Deon’s contemporary use of imagery found in Visualized Civics, the original scenes from the book lose their rational, didactic meaning. What remains are isolated figures and structures assembled into new scenarios through visual and conceptual collages that can be defined as a sort of social surrealism. Deon’s works reflect a language based on recursive imagery, and while always identical in form, the key figures change meaning in relation to the context of each new work.

The conformity promoted in the 1950s through familiar and reassuring images is deconstructed in Deon’s work and represent paradoxical conditions of today’s society, where relativism and individualism have become the new and uncertain principles of our lives.

—Bartholomew F. Bland, Curator of Exhibitions, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York

Contact:Richard Deon 7 Berkshire Road Dover Plains, NY 12522

845.877.3445 deonr@aol.com www.richarddeon.com

Cover: Reseller, acrylic on canvas, 6’ 5½” x 8’.

Overleaf: “Paradox and Conformity” Installation view at Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY.

Richard Deon: A Short BiographyThe work of Richard Deon has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries in the United States and in Europe, including the Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery at Broward College, Davie, FL; Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, MO; the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY; the Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport, CT; and CCC Strozzina at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy.

In addition, his public art commissions include: the NY Metropolitan Transit Authority; the Department of Transportation/Public Art Fund, and The Urban Center in New York City; the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, FL; and SGC International, Washington University in St. Louis. In addition, Deon’s work is in public and corporate collections, including those of the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, MO; the Museum of Modern Art /Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection, and Pfizer, Inc., in New York City; and the Roland Gibson Collection, State University of New York, Potsdam.

www.richarddeon.com

Left: Writ Large, billboard installed above Good Citizen Gallery, Saint Louis, MO, 14' x 48'. Photo by Jordan Seiler.

Center: The Quick Response Squadron, Mixed media. Group of five. 8' x 13½' each. Installation view, Foreman Gallery, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY.

Right: “Paradox & Conformity: Paintings, Prints & Planes by Richard Deon,” installation view at Rosemary Duffy Larson Gallery, Broward College, Davie, FL. Center: Mal Occhio, acrylic on synthetic canvas, 20' 6" x 10' 5". Right: Untitled Volcano (Birth by Averaging), acrylic on synthetic canvas, 10' 11" x 20' 6". Peace Deal on Wheels, acrylic on wood, 42" x 34" x 8". Photo by Herb Yeates.