$12,000
Powder coated aluminum
10.5’h x 2.5’w x 2.5’d
From the artist:
“Orange Peel” is made of fabricated, powder coated aluminum. I consider it as part of a series of sculptures titled “Wayfinders.” “Wayfinders” is intended to stimulate the imagination in a positive direction and to contribute to enrichment of our everyday experience.
Artist bio:
Richard Pitts was born in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey to a military family and traveled throughout the United States. After settling in Clifton, New Jersey and then graduating from Clifton High School, Pitts attended the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts where he met the painter and sculptor Reuben Kadish.
In 1960 Pitts moved to New York City, set up a studio and attended Pratt Institute in 1961 where he met his second mentor, painter Ernie Briggs. Both Kadish and Briggs remained lasting friends and inspirations. Since 1962 the artist’s friendship with fellow student Mark Zimetbaum, the founding member of the New York Studio School, had inspired Richard Pitts with the ability to pursue the artist-run spirit that led to his own studio, gallery and teaching experience.
In 1965 after a three-year tour in Europe with the United States Army, Richard Pitts returned to Pratt Institute and graduated in 1968. He established his studio on 18th Street in New York City and was the founding member of the First Street Gallery. There, his friendship with Mario Busoni gave him a rich appreciation for the transplanted European culture that existed in Postwar New York City.
From 1970 to 1973, Pitts taught Painting at the Kansas City Art Institute located in Kansas City, Missouri. After a scholarship with the New York Studio School in Paris, France he returned to New York with his wife Linda Scott, also a painter, and infant son Morgan. He soon began teaching in the Fine Arts Department at The Fashion Institute of Technology.
While exhibiting paintings and prints both nationally and throughout New York during 1988, Richard Pitts married painter and designer Karen Gentile. Together both artists began building their studios on an old farm in Pennsylvania.
In 2003 along with key members of FIT’s Fine Arts Department Melissa Starke, Coordinator and Marcin Wlodarczyk, Director of Printmaking Technology – joined Richard Pitts as founding members of Urban Studio that became Urban Studio Unbound, or US+U. US+U presently houses a gallery made possible by a grant from Yonkers, New York and is managed by Melissa Starke, Director and Curator.
In 2004 Richard Pitts began exhibiting sculpture. In 2009 after attending the Artist Welding Workshop with David Boyajian at the Sculpture Barn in New Fairfield, Connecticut, Pitts set a sculpture studio for welding metals on his farm in Pennsylvania.
After retiring from FIT as a Full Professor in 2010, Richard Pitts continues to paint and exhibit large-scale outdoor sculpture.
Artist website: http://richardpittssculpture.com/