DIANE RICHEY-WARD Curriculum Vitae
Master of Arts Degree, Studio Art
California State University, Sacramento, Ca,
Bachelor of Arts Degree, California State University, Hayward, Ca. Academy of Art College, San Francisco, Ca.
2024 “Rivalizione Floreale”, Oltrarno, Florence, Italy
2022 Open Studio, American Can Factory, Brooklyn, New York
2019 October Exhibition, Taita Studio Màlaga, Màlaga, Spain
2019 “Retrospective”, Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, Sacramento, Ca.
2018 "Diane Richey-Ward/Mick Sheldon, E Street Gallery, Sacramento, Ca.
2018 "Exit Sharply" SLAK Ateliers, Arnhem, NL
2017 “Merging Forces” Artspace 1616 Gallery, Sacramento, Ca.
2016 “Seeking Coalescence” Standard Galleria, Independent Museum of Contemporary Art, Valencia, Spain
2015 “Intimate Migration”, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China
2015 “Drawn from Abstraction”, SMUD Art Gallery, Sacramento, Ca.
2014 “Locomotion”, Draw International, Caylus France
2014 “La Vitesse de L’Idee” Union Hall Gallery, Sacramento, Ca.
2013 “A Fleeting Grasp”, Kaneko Gallery, Sacramento, Ca.
2012 “Suspended Animation”, Obras Exhibition, Renkum, NL
2010 “Attitude” Skinner/Howard Gallery, Sacramento, Ca.
2009 “Drawings-Zoetermeer”, BaZtille , Den Hague, NL
2008 “Drawings-Arnhem”, Artistiek Gallerie, Amsterdam, NL
2008 “On the Move”: Center for Visual Arts- Gelderland, Arnhem, NL
2007 Residency Exhibition, C’At Art , St. Columbe Sur L’ers, France
2006 “Drawing Now”, Exploding Head Gallery, Sacramento, Ca.
2020 15th Anniversary Exhibit, Artspace 1616 Gallery, Sacramento, California
2015 “Back to the Drawing Board” E Street Gallery, Sacramento, Ca.
2011 “July Artists” Ondarte Artist-in-Residence, Akumal, Mexico
2011 “TenYears at BaZtille, BaZtille Studios, Zoetermeer, NL
2010 “The Art of Teaching”, SMUD Center, Sacramento, Ca
2004 “Cowtown”, Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, Ca.
2003 “The Other Side”, b.sakata garo, Sacramento, Ca
2004 “Annual Faculty Exhibit”, American River College, Sacramento, Ca.
2002 “Tribute to My Father” Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, Ca
2019 Venezia Contemporanea Artist -in-residence, Venice, Italy
2019 Taita Studio Málaga Artist-in-residence, Málaga, Spain
2018 Atelier Holcnerova Residency, Lisbon, Portugal
2017 SLAK Guest Artist-in-Residency, Arnhem, NL
2016 “Estudio Galleria” Independent Museum of Contemporary Art Residency, Valencia, Spain
2016 “Obras” Art Residency, Estramoz, Portugal
2015 “Swatch Art Peace Hotel” Shanghai, China
2014 “Draw International’, Caylus, France
2012 Obras Artist-in-Residence, Renkum, NL
2012 Sucre Sol Artist-in-Residence, Barcelona, Spain
2011 Ondarte Artist-in-Residence, Akumal, Mexico
2009 BaZtille Artist-in-Residence, Zoetermeer, Netherlands
2008 SLAK Guest Artist-in-Residency, Arnhem, Netherlands
2007 C’at Art Artist-in-Residency, St. Columbe Sur L’Hers, France
2005 Kanaal 10 Guest Artist-in –Residency, Amsterdam, NL
2004 David and Julia White Artist’s Colony Residency, Costa Rica
2003 Banff Centre for Art Residency, Banff, Alberta Canada
2003 Camac Organization Artist-in-Residence, Paris, France
2002 Camac Organization Artist–in-Residence, Paris, France
2000 The Brydcliffe Artist in Residency, Woodstock, New York
1995 Studios Midwest, Galesburg, Illinois
1994- 2015: Professor of Art, (Drawing and Art History) American River College Sacramento, Ca.
Teaching Abroad: Professor of Art, NCSAC, Drawing and Art History Semesters taught: Paris, (2008), Florence (2009) and London (2010). Barcelona (2012).
Artist Statement:
Diane Richey-Ward
My practice explores the fusion of man-made and organic forms — the charged terrain where human craftsmanship meets the unpredictable logic of nature. Through an ongoing series of drawings and hybrid works, I combine mechanical structures with botanical and natural shapes, allowing them to overlap, interfere, and transform one another. Earlier exhibitions incorporated transparent sculptural elements, video, and drawing installations, extending the image into space and atmosphere.
In Seeking Coalescence, this inquiry deepens. I begin with expansive charcoal and pastel drawings- raw, physical, and immediate. Through projection and photographic translation, these surfaces are re-seen and recomposed, evolving into layered digital works that retain both the residue of the hand and the cool precision of the lens. Transparent photographic strata intersect with gestural marks; organic forms press against architectural or constructed elements. The image becomes a site of negotiation - tactile yet immaterial, deliberate yet unstable.
By layering mechanical and natural forms, I search for dynamic formal mutations - moments when the composition exceeds its origins and something unfamiliar begins to surface. The process opens into a space of discovery, into what Diane Arbus described as, "It's what I've never seen before that I recognize." Recognition here is not repetition, but encounter — a sudden clarity within strangeness.
Within this continuum, the Ghost Botanicals series turns toward floral structures as vessels of fragility and transformation. Botanical forms dissolve, fracture, and hover like apparitions - suspended between still life and specter, presence and disappearance. They suggest both ecological vulnerability and quiet resilience, holding the tension between what endures and what fades.
Across all of the work, I seek the precise moment when layered energies converge - when drawing, photograph, gesture, and light coalesce into an image that feels fully alive in its becoming.
ARTIST BIO
Diane Richey-Ward is a practicing visual artist from Northern California. After completing her Master’s Degree in Studio Art from California State University, Sacramento, she began exhibiting her large-scale charcoal and pastel drawings in Sacramento, San Francisco and later at the Center for Contemporary Art and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. Diane worked as a full-time Professor of Art at American River College since 1999, teaching Drawing and Art History courses. In 2008 she was hired to teach Study Abroad semesters in Paris, London, Florence and Barcelona and combined those semesters with Artist-in-Residency fellowships, spending half her time in Europe for many years. Nearly every year for more than 25 years Diane participated as an Artist-in-Resident: working in Costa Rica, Canada, US, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland. For her 2015 residency in Shanghai, China, she was awarded a 3-month fellowship with the Swatch Art Peace Hotel; culminating with a multi-media exhibit/installation. Her latest work involves drawing, photography and video, and culminating in an art residencies and exhibitions in Málaga, Spain and Venice, Italy.