Elemuel D. Richards

Art has always been an integral part of Elemuel Dean Richards’ life.

Growing up in an artistic family influenced his decision to pursue a career as an artist. Richards received his B.A. in Studio Art from Queens College in 2001, where

he honed his draftsmanship, painting skills and other explored mediums. Richard’s work reflects the fact that he grew in Long Island during the Hip-hop and Graffiti era. His art work successfully melds human forms with street art elements. Street art always fascinated Elemuel D. Richards with its vivid colors and array of styles. This art form fueled Richards’ desires to create his own type of expression using similar principles from street art. Richards realized his style would transcend the typical graffiti lettering in favor of abstract human forms. The end result is a brand of work, which draws the viewer into a labyrinth of lines that at first glance are as puzzling as the forms themselves. As the viewer spends more time looking at the works, the different layers of forms and colors become more apparent. Richards’ work is reminiscent of jazz because of the many layered elements that become visible under close inspection. His forms bend, twist and pose, which adds to the dance like quality of the works. Working mainly in ink, acrylic, oil and spray paint, nothing discarded if it enhances Richards’ vision. As of recent Richards began transforming discarded objects into art elements, such as fruit baskets, door panels and anything he deemed worthy of being converted into art. Another style he also incorporates into his work is street collage. In this process, Richards combines newspapers and other sources as well as scrapes of paper off the urban land scape. This allows Richards to create unique pieces of work that blends his human forms with those of collage, giving these works their own and metropolitan flavor.