Richard Newton has shown artworks, artists’ books, films & videos and presented live performances and site-specific installations throughout the world. His one-of-a-kind books were shown at DOCUMENTA VI, 1977, in Kassel, Germany. He exhibited photographs based on his In The Privacy of Your Own Home, 1976, at the European Month of Photography, 2018, Berlin, Germany. In 2019, he had a solo exhibition of photographic images at Mucho Mas! in Torino, Italy. This was followed by inclusion in a group show at Kspaces in Torino, where Newton exhibited his photo based study for Los Angeles after the fire.
Richard Newton was born in Oakland, California, 1948, and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California at Irvine. In 1972, he began working with cans, glass bottles, bread, produce and other cast-offs. Partly from a need to survive and partly from a sense of fascination for the abundance of America, his practice of dumpster diving and recycling became a means to create environmental works of art. Beggar’s Banquet, 1972, created from one night’s bounty of discarded fruits and vegetables installed as 2 lavish pyramids was included in the Getty’s “Pacific Standard Time: Los Angeles Art, 1945 - 1980.”
In the summer of 2012, Newton travelled to Tromsø, Norway to participate in the 13th International Ibsen Conference. The conference normally reserved for scholars, invited 4 artists. One each, from Asia, Africa, Europe and Richard Newton from USA. He spoke about his production, The Former Miss Barstow with every Tom, Dick, and Harry in a doll’s house, 1987, and discussed the process of adapting Ibsen to a specific cultural and societal situation.
Richard Newton’s early art films and videos have shown at museums, galleries, ciné clubs, festivals, and on television. His groundbreaking fashion films, Traction Avenue and Lamy Men, both 1987, were shown at the 10th A Shaded View of Fashion film festival, 2018, in Paris, France. His fashion documentary, Plaza Salòn, screened at the 11th A Shaded View of Fashion film festival in 2019.
