Marginal Revolution
Ryder Richards
Crate: Project [link]
Asheville, NC
Oct 23- Dec 27, 2018
Ryder’s latest works are a series of drawings and paintings of tools wrapped in trash bags. Continuing his discussion of invisible labor, class, and politics the works consider the tendency to marginalize and disenfranchise.
Richards often utilizes tools and acts of labor as a means to embody the individual’s ability within a larger system. In this case logging his hours as he practices his craft produces a conversation about normative valuation of physical utility over reliance on beauty or concept alone. In microcosm, this small move reflects the larger tendency to value individuals for their utility, seeing them as tools to be used, weaponized, and discarded when convenient.
“American Drawing: T-Square” [2018] graphite and pigment on paper_ 22″x30″ 
“American Drawing: Sawzall” graphite and pigment on paper, 22″x30″ 
“American Drawing: Hammer II” [2018] graphite and pigment on paper_ 30″x22″ 
“American Drawing: Hammer” [2018] graphite and pigment on paper_ 22″x30″ 
“American Drawing: Impact Driver” [2018] graphite and pigment on paper_ 22″x30″
Raised in Roswell, New Mexico Ryder is based outside of McKinney, Texas. He has exhibited internationally, attended many art residencies, curated numerous exhibitions, and maintains a condensed art review publication, Eutopia: Contemporary Art Review. Some of his more interesting projects include converting a Ryder truck into a nomadic art gallery, co-founding a national arts collective, and re-sheetrocking a gallery as an art exhibition.