Category: Projects

Book Launch & Signing

September 1, 2026 · 6–8 PM

CLAMP
247 West 29th Street, Ground Floor
New York City

Music to Drive To presents a multi-decade studio practice that began in the late 1990s, bringing together paintings alongside a foreword by Stephanie Buhmann, an essay by Katy Crocker, and an extended conversation with art dealer Max Protetch.

The Book

Designed by Joseph Gilbert and edited by Will Palmer, the publication combines expansive image spreads with essays and conversations that consider painting as both a visual and philosophical practice.

A Limited Collector’s Edition

Collector’s Edition of Music to Drive To is currently taking shape.

Richardson is working with Bridget Bellaforte and Joseph Gilbert to develop a custom presentation box containing the book together with an original watercolor mounted on aluminum panel. The edition is currently in development, with details to be announced.

For additional information, visit ARTIST MONOGRAPH: MUSIC TO DRIVE TO.

When my daughter was eight years old, she asked me if I can paint anything other than stripes. And she had a good point. Brilliant minds that I respect in the art world have asked me the same thing. That same week, over breakfast, my family had a sketchbook out on the table and I drew a bagel. I exclaimed, “There! See, I can draw something!” We had a good laugh about it, but as the years go on, I continue to receive the same comments from friends and colleagues.

In order for an artist to make it to the thirty-year mark, that person has got to have chutzpah, or a big ego, or both. It would otherwise be impossible to work tirelessly toward an obscure goal, against the interest of our mainstream culture, and against the interest of having a comfortable lifestyle.

At the age of nineteen, I called my mom from an ISD phone booth in India to let her know I had not taken my flight back and was “never coming home.” I swam and drank from the Ganges, gave up my name, and let everything float downstream. I found comfort in liminal space and in many ways got what I was looking for. After six months, I’d stepped in water buffalo shit one too many times and succumbed to external notions that I had no social standing and no practical life experience. I didn’t want to be a dropout.

Originally designed by Doug Garofalo, the residents of the house commissioned Grant Gibson to design an addition to their award-winning structure. The residents are collectors of Willy Bo Richardson’s work and they wished to construct a custom alcove to honor the painting “Navigation 2”.

The problem was that the original house was designed to make it difficult to add anything at all, and Garofalo passed away shortly after the original house was constructed. The clients work closely with Grant to achieve a solution to this very difficult problem.

First survey of modernist and contemporary architecture and interiors in the richly layered architectural history of Santa Fe. “Santa Fe Modern” reveals the high desert landscape as an ideal setting for bold, abstracted forms of modernist houses.

Walkyries, oil on panel, is featured in the Hunt residence.

Continue reading “Santa Fe Modern”

Willy Bo Richardson on the air with Mark Perry, “A Matter of the Mind” KSFR April 16, 2024. With the theme of connectivity. Richardson and Perry have a conversation about creativity and flow states in relation to psychology and art history.

“A Matter of the Mind” –  Audio podcast episode here:

Synthesizing his knowledge and experience of hypnotherapy, experiential education, facilitation, presentation and musical performance, Mark Perry‘s radio show explores mind, consciousness and creative intelligence. His focus is on the cultivation and advancement of our natural connectedness.

Richardson also talks about his new work and the exhibition “Confluence” at Nüart Gallery with Joseph Ostraff.

Tamarind Residency

Tamarind Institute residency workshops between artist and printers are the basis for a conversation on the shared creative language through interdisciplinary partnerships. Since 1960, Tamarind Institute has shaped the field of collaborative printmaking, through a unique printer training program and an educational mission to preserve and advance the creative medium of lithography. Continue reading “Tamarind Institute Residency”