City Gallery

Arturo Alonzo Sandoval, Josh and Kristin Richards
Feb. 8 – April 6

Arturo Alonzo Sandoval

"Work produces results" -artist mantra

In 1965, Arturo Alonzo Sandoval took a beginning-weaving course while a graduate student at California State College-Los Angeles. That same year he was ushered into the U.S. Naval Reserve and soon was shipped off to Vietnam where he spent time as a U.S.N.R. Officer on the U. S. S. Kitty Hawk, CVA 63 and on the U. S. Naval Base in Yokosuka, Japan. In 1969, he finished his M.A. specializing in sculptural fiber art. Encouraged by his professors Michael Schrier and Virginia Hoffman to consider teaching he pursued his terminal art degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art under Robert Kidd, Richard DeVore, and Gerhardt Knodel, completing his M.F.A. degree in 1971.

Sandoval’s professional activities include being an adjudicator, lecturer, and curator of exhibitions, set designer, workshop facilitator, non-profit board member, art mentor, and advisor. His fiber art works have been exhibited extensively regionally, nationally and accepted by jury into international exhibitions including the 8th and 14th Biennial of Tapestry in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Textile Triennial in Lodz, Poland, and the International Textile Competition in Kyoto, Japan. His fiber art is collected by major art museums as the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, Smithsonian Institute-Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC, and the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY, and corporate, public, and private collections.

Sandoval retired in 2017 from the academy after forty-four years of teaching at the University of Kentucky. His fiber art has been published in several books including: MAKERS; Beyond Weaving; Fiber Soft Sculpture; Vietnam: Reflexes and Reflections; Interlacing; Celebrating the Stitch; International CRAFTS; The Art Quilt; The Quilt; Imagery on Fabric;The Surface Designers Art; Arturo Alonzo Sandoval: A Retrospective; and many fiber art and craft exhibition catalogs and journals as American Craft Magazine, Fiberarts Magazine, and Surface Design Journal.

Josh and Kristin Richards 

Josh Richards experiments with different ways and techniques of making, challenging and rethinking what is commonly understood as painting. Processes include casting objects in paint, sewing, weaving, collage, and creating “skins” which are then draped, stretched, or folded over panel. This experimentation has led to many objects that test and challenge the physical limitations of paint. Using materials found in the construction industry and combining those with the careful study of objects observed on job sites has greatly influenced the arrangement of the work. Reclaimed and discarded materials are used as well to encourage an awareness and consideration of objects we interact with daily.

Included in this show are collaborations with his partner, Kristen.

Josh Richards is currently enrolled in the Boston University Painting MFA Program and received a BA from the University of Kentucky. His work has been exhibited at the Pittsburg Center for the Arts (Pittsburg, PA), Bolivar Gallery (Lexington, KY), Hokin Gallery (Chicago, IL), Whitdel Arts Center (Detroit, MI), and the Findlay Street Project Space (Cincinnati, OH). Richards was the recipient of a Great Meadows Fellowship and has been a resident at The Wassaic Project in NewYork. Josh currently lives and works in Boston, MA. 

Kristin Richards earned her MFA from Yale School of Art and a BA from Asbury University. Richards’ work has been exhibited in the US and abroad at museums and galleries including: American University Museum (Washington, DC), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Brooklyn, NY), Anahita Gallery (Tehran, Iran), SOHO20 (New York, NY), Delaware Center for Contemporary Art (Wilmington, DE), Touch Gallery (Cambridge, MA), Asbury University (Wilmore, KY), and Green Gallery (New Haven, CT). Richards curated Nasty Women Kentucky in conjunction with the nation wide Nasty Women exhibitions in early 2017. Kristin currently lives and works in Lexington, KY.