The Hutchinson Art Center is looking forward to having the work of Oklahoma artist Robert Dohrmann, who currently works under the pseudonym of Leon Richmond.

University of Oklahoma Professor Robert Dohrmann received his MFA in Painting and Drawing in 1992 at Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington. In 1999 he took a position in the department in the Foundations area. Over the years he has taught a variety of Studio courses, but currently the bulk of his teaching duties have been in the Core area and an online comic book theory course.

In 2018, Dohrmann took the pseudonym: Leon Richmond. In combination with traditional 2D materials and collage techniques, the objects used to construct his body of work are mostly large romantic cardboard print paintings, shadow box clocks, unlistenable LP records and a variety of found objects. The process of cultural anthropology (picking though thrift stores) is conducted anywhere he happens to find junk stores. He likens these stores to museums (also consumer graveyards) where affordable consumer goods go to die and hopefully be reborn. When he finds something that piques his curiosity, he “re-arts” the object and gives it a new life through remix and mash-up strategies. The antiquated appearance in the found pieces are crucial, as each vintage object comes with a ready-made veneer of age. It signifies American consumer history and points directly to our current relationship to many concerning topics of today, such as middle/upper class consumerism, low-cost mass production, religious intolerance, unmonitored capitalistic greed, climate concerns, patriarchal power systems and White American hierarchies.

More artwork created under the Leon Richmond name can be viewed at https://www.leonrichmondart.com/.

This exhibition will be on display in our Main Gallery from January 5th through February 3rd, 2024.