Patrick Harris

A compelling sense that art can be socially responsible and beautiful is the reason I paint.

My paintings attempt to represent our human-built world and the natural world on the same surface at the same time. As the artist, I am just trying to convey some thoughts about them in this statement. Your interpretations are equally valid. If a painting is remarkable, it continues to impress you in unexpected ways that expand every time you look at it.

The paintings reference commonplace images like video games, carnival, television, headaches, nature, disasters, charms, signs and symbols.

An idea for a painting often comes from something seen. Just as often, it begins with the idea itself and an image must be imagined or found. To paint about a single, devastating hurricane neglects the repeated appearance of these superstorms and the climate change driving their severity. Hurricanes are cyclones, the name changing with your location. After making a painting of the Cyclone rollercoaster on Coney Island, the idea of a series came into being while studying a work by Jasper Johns. Johns himself used the design of Edvard Munch’s quilt to design his own painting titled: “Corpse/Mirror”. The designs by these two artists served as the founda...

M.F.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA 1981
B.S., South Dakota State University, USA 1977

Awards

2015 Bobbye Straight Faculty Initiative Award, $3,500 Award: Art on the Web Univ. of New Mexico – Los Alamos
2011 USA Project Grant, United States Artists, $5,000 Award Los Angeles, California
2003 Best of Show, $1,000 Award, Contemporary Art: The Fuller Arts Center, Los Alamos, NM
2000 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Individual Support Grant, $20,000 Award New York, New York
1997 F.O. Butler Award: Excellence in Education, $2,500 Award, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD
1989 Best of Show, New Mexico Invitational: Selections ’89, $1,000 Award College of Santa Fe
1985 First Award: National Art Competition: New American Talent, $1,000 Award, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas
1985 First Place: Painting, International Art Competition, Scarsdale/MetroArt, Mussavi Gallery and other sites, New York, New York
1980 Scholarship, The Graduate School, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Solo Exhibitions of Painting

2019 Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
2015 The University of New Mexico-Los Alamos
2011 Downtown Subscription, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2009 Downtown Subscription, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2007 Trinidad Art Center, Trinidad, Colorado
2006 Tadu Contemporary Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2005 Tadu Contemporary Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2004 One Point Gallery, Denver, Colorado
2001 Washington Pavilion of Arts and Sciences, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
2000 LewAllen Contemporary Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1998 LewAllen Contemporary Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1997 South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD
1996 Galeria El Zocalo, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1994 The Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe, NM
1993 Aura Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1992 UMC Arts Center, University of Colorado-Boulder
1985 Harris Gallery, Houston, Texas

Collective Exhibitions of Painting

2020 Sangre de Cristo Art Center, Pueblo, Colorado
2019 Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM
2018 Cloyde Snook Gallery, Adams State University, Alamosa, Colorado
2018 Yares Art Projects, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2015 The Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana
2014 Greg Bennett Conte...