David Richard Contemporary is pleased to present, A Painting Survey, a solo exhibition of paintings and works on paper produced over the past several decades by Michael Wright.

Wright has dedicated his career to abstract painting and more specifically, to exploring various media and approaches to abstract expressionism and color field painting. The selection of works in this exhibition range from painting on canvas to mixed media paintings that combine paper collage, paint, ink, chalk and graphite on canvas supports to unique acrylic paintings combined with ink on paper. Wright’s paintings, whether abstract expressionistic or color field, have bold colors and compositions, gestural strokes and the essence of drawing—through his generous use of the formal elements of line and the color black. Frequently, he incorporates gestural calligraphic elements that further extend his masterful exploitation of drawing in his compositions.

Michael Wright was born in New Rochelle, New York in 1931. Coming from a talented family of writers and artists, he displayed an early and natural affinity for art. He studied at the Yale Art and Music School, the Albright Art School in Buffalo and the Brooklyn Museum School. After serving in Korea, he began his artistic career as a painter in New York City in 1954. During that time, he befriended John Chamberlain, studied engraving with Paul Brach at the New School and exhibited at the Tenth Street Gallery with Howard Kanovitz, and Philip Pavia. He moved to East Hampton and assisted Willem de Kooning in his studio from 1965 to1967. While in East Hampton, Wright was given several solo shows at the Guild Hall and won the prestigious Long Island Painter's award in 1966. Following moves to Cambridge in 1972 and later to New Hampshire, he now lives and paints in New Mexico. Wright has had many solo exhibitions and his work included in group shows in New York, Boston, Concord, Denver, Scottsdale, Santa Fe and Taos, which has included exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Rockwell Museum of Western Art (Corning, NY), Museum of Fine Arts (Santa Fe, NM), Denver Museum of Art, Las Cruces Museum (NM) and the Harwood Museum (Taos, NM).