GL Richardson: Twin Window

GL Richardson’s stark compositions portray vastness, feelings of distance amplified by a seemingly endless sky or a figure’s obscured face. Like watching the world go by from a window, there’s a sense of the painting’s subjects being simultaneously close-at-hand and unreachable. Even if we’ve been out there, in that space beyond the window, there now exists a threshold – the glass both allowing us a glimpse and keeping us separated from what lies beyond.

By painting the lifestyle of cowboying, Richardson shares his past experience with both viewers and his current self. Now that he has dedicated himself full-time to his art, he stands with the viewer at the window, looking back. He does, however, remind us of the reciprocal quality of a window – his work looks back at him, the product of his ranching experience and “everything that it taught me, everything that I learned, all the ways that I grew from it”. For the viewer, that means realizing there may be something looking back in through that window, or through that painting.

In the works for Twin Window, Richardson says “the subject matters are oftentimes seemingly aware of your gaze. You’re not hiding. You’re not invisible. It’s more vulnerable in that way.”

Blue Rain Gallery presents GL Richardson’s Twin Window – A Guadalupe Street Feature. The show opens Friday, July 14 with an artist reception from 5- 7 pm. The show will be on view through July 29, 2023.